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Ozone is a poisonous gas with strong smell, and is a form of oxygen. It is pollutant when it exists between 5-10km above the earth's surface, causes breathing problems and harms the eyes. However, the ozone layer high above the earth, between 15-30km is not only useful, but absolutely necessary. And that's because it absorbs harmful radiation from the sun and thus protects earth and the life on it. If that solar radiation was to reach the earth, single-cell organisms would die, DNA would sustain dramatic changes and there would be multiplied symptoms of skin cancer. Since 1970 there has been detected a reduction in the amount of ozone, creating an ozone hole over Antarctica in 1980. Thanks to research it was found that the cause of this reduction is chlorofluorocarbon. This chemical is a compound containing carbon fluorine and chlorine; it is a CFC that destroys the ozone layer. CFCs are used as cooling substances in refrigerators, air-conditions and in sprays. When they reach the ozone layer there is a reaction between these chemical elements, making the layer thinner and thinner. In 1994 the European Council banned the creation of more CFCs, so as for other ozone-friendly substances to be used. Greenpeace in Britain made it to construct a fridge without CFCs, but it wasn't made as known as it should have been as it was against the interests of large industries. Until the day they will put their personal interests aside, the ozone layer will keep becoming thinner and thinner... Image credit: Frankie Roberto. Image licensed under a Creative-Commons Attribution license.

It is a fact that global warming affects the icebergs in a most dramatic way. The greenhouse effect is to be blamed, as it is the cause of global warming. How does that make the sea level rise? Well first of all when water is heated it expands. But also since an iceberg is 99% ice it starts to melt as soon as the temperature is over 0 degrees, making it just too easy for the icebergs to start melting. Icebergs are huge, the largest one is 12,000 cubic miles. So, if you were to melt it you would get an awful lot of water. Also there are many, many icebergs on earth, so if all of them melted you would have millions of gallons of water. Icebergs won't melt completely, but enough to make the sea level rise quite a bit. Scientists used to say that by the end of the century the sea may have risen up to three centimetres. That didn’t sound a lot, but it really is. And now, scientists have started to realise that their first calculation was far too positive for our case, since nothing is done to stop global warming and the process of melting ice becomes quicker and quicker. Think how much ocean there is. Well, think with all of that water you add on another three centemeters worth. A lot isn't it? In three hundred years it is thought that the sea will have risen three to four meters! So what if the sea is rising so much? Think about what will happen if the sea level rises. The water isn't just going to fall off the earth. There is no place to put extra water in the sea,so it will have to go onto the land. Think about what a map will look like in, say the year 2500. There will probably be a tiny dot for each continent. Or will it? If you think one step further you will realize that might not be, because there are only a certain amount of icebergs in the world so once they have melted, there will be nothing left to melt. Nevertheless there will be an awful lot of water on the earth. People already know what should be done to avoid this tragedy. A tragedy that doesn’t affect only humans (who would actually deserve it because of all the bad things they do to earth) but each and every living organism. These two last decades more than 50 species suddenly were found to be endangered. Those who were already known to be endangered face a really high possibility of extinction. People have to understand that making money shouldn’t be their main concern. That protecting the environment is in fact their protection. If this article made you one of those people that know what they have to do, check this link for more stuff: green-blog.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=66 There are many ways of finding up ways to save our earth, but the real challenge is to do all those tips tell us to... Image Credit: Public Domain. Suggested Credit: Courtesy: National Science Foundation [via Flickr].

Despite the ban in 1994, radioactive depositions still reach the seas. In french pipes of nuclear facilities Greenpeace's divers found the waters to have 17.000.000 times more intense radioactivity than clean waters. In Norway, crabs and seaweeds have been polluted by the radioactive substance technetium. Scientists found it comes from old british facilities for nuclear fuels. However, american geologists are thinking of burying under the seabed radioactive materials. Since 1959 enormous quantities of radioactive waste have been thrown into the Arctic Ocean, including nuclear reactors, while another million of chemical weapons decay onto the sea floor in 400-4500 metres depth. Moreover, Spain has stored 100.000 barrels containing slight radiocative waste, from scientific laboratories. Plutonium from the nuclear trials is detected in the southern seas of the Atlantic ocean. Britain has recorded 57.435 shipwrecks, including nuclear submarines. The highly dangerous poison DDT harms the marine organisms more than the others, and thanks to the marine currents it is transfered to all seas, affecting every organism. PBDE, a substance used for computer and television construction, has been detected in whales' fat! 90% of all fish are polluted by mercury and another 25% by PCB. Every oil drilling pollutes the sea bed in an area of 20 square kilometres and at the one third of this area all forms of life die. Wordwide algies increase dramatically while fish population reduces. Since the day Israel didn't sign the ban about chemical depositions in the seas, the Haifa Chemicals company only has thrown into the sea 60.000 tones of toxic waste. On daily basis 12.800 tones of acids reach Tinisia's bay, results of the production of chemical fertilizers. 70 of the 200 most important fish species are endangered, according to FAO (world organisation of food and agriculture). However, fishermen's number increases and the recent method of bottom trawling destroys whole marine ecosystems. Ocean researchers discovered that the increasing air pollution prevents the coral reefs from growing.When CO2 reaches the water surface, it reacts,turning the water more acidic and harming corals. And as if this didn't happen, scientists want to channel directly under the sea bed enormous quantities of CO2 to ease the atmosphere... All this was only a part of the annual research of environmental organisations. And it doesn't even mention domestic nor hospital waste. For those who haven't understand how much we pollute our seas... Image credit: Tres. Image licensed under a Creative-Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works license.

China has a dream that the giant pandas it breeds in captivity will one day frolic in the mountains with their wild cousins. This is the next challenge for the scientists who manage the country's biggest reserve for captive pandas. They have mastered the art of breeding the world's iconic and endangered animal; now it is time to send some of their babies out into the real world. The centre's first experiment ended in tragedy, since the five-year-old panda that was released knew to survive on it's own, but couldn't protect itself from the other wild pandas and thus fallen to his death from a tree,after being pursued by wild pandas angered at an intruder in their territory. Now two males and two females have been selected as the second attempt. Scientists running the program hope that wild pandas will be less likely to attack a female who strays into their territory. Everyone wishes the experiment has a happy end this time. With only 1.590 pandas in the wild,it is crucial to improve their gene diversity to raise the animal's chances to avoid extinction.Reintroducing pandas pandas bred in China's reserves is one way to do that,and there are many candidates to choose from. The success of China's two main reserves in breeding, principally through artificial insemination, has resulted in a panda baby boom. The director of the reserve argues that the captive population has almost reached a level of sustainability to ensure that the panda can survive for another hundred years. All this is a really good effort much appriciated by every person who loves animals and wants them to be saved from extinction. But doing all this is not enough. Pandas are only the example of so many species we let unprotected to reach the point of extinction until we realised we have to save them. Why should we always reach that point instead of thinking in advance which human activities cause a direct harm to the environment and it's wildlife and stop doing them? Image credit: Philou.cn. Image licensed under a Creative-Commons Attribution-Share Alike license.