Research Shows Harmful Ozone Chemicals Released in 2011 Japan Tsunami
The tsunami that crippled Japan back in 2011 has been shown to have released extremely harmful chemicals that destroys the ozone layer. This study and its findings were released on March 12 of this year and show that this event released thousands of tons of chemicals and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
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When the thousands of homes in Japan were destroyed by the tsunami, so were thousands of appliances that contained harmful CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons). These appliances were things like refrigerators, air conditioners, electrical equipment, and also insulation. According to the study, this released 7,275 tons of halocarbons and that over the following year after the earthquake, halocarbon emissions rose by 91%. These halocarbons are chemicals that attack and destroy the ozone layer on our planet and in turn contribute to climate change effects. These are also gases that have been largely outlawed thanks to the Montreal Protocol that helped banned these CFC's.
The study noticed that although this event is small, no countries account for greenhouse gases released in natural disasters. Just this one event would account for 4% or less of the total global halocarbons, according to the study results. This new study shows that in future years, it may be necessary to account for the halocarbons released during such natural disasters in global emissions estimates.
Source: http://www.livescience.com/50371-japan-tsunami-released-ozone-destroyers.html
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