• Question: Do you think to much radiation could kill the human race?

    Asked by Andrew to Paul, Mobeen, Greg on 16 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Paul O'Mahoney

      Paul O'Mahoney answered on 16 Mar 2016:


      I suppose it certainly could, if it was harmful radiation. Not all radiation is dangerous to us (things like visible radiation and radio waves are generally quite safe), but if we all had too much radiation like ionising radiation and UV radiation, I think we’d be in trouble.

    • Photo: Greg Melia

      Greg Melia answered on 16 Mar 2016:


      The sun emits all kinds of radiation, including harmful ionising radiation, and this could have killed us long ago if it had got to the earth’s surface. Thankfully, Earth’s atmosphere protects us from this radiation. Ultra-violet radiation – the type that gives you sunburn that can lead to skin cancer, is mostly absorbed by a layer of the atmosphere called the ozone layer (Ozone is an isotope of oxygen that contains three atoms, as opposed to the two-atom oxygen molecules that you breathe.) Back in the 1970s and 1980s, we realised that products were using on earth, such as chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that we put in aerosol sprays, were escaping into the atmosphere and destroying the ozone layer – which would be a terrible thing to do as we wouldn’t be protected from the sun’s harmful rays anymore. We changed the chemicals in our aerosols to less harmful ones and, slowly, the ozone layer is repairing itself.

      This is just one example of how our actions can harm the planet where we live, and why it’s really important to consider the environmental cost of our actions.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_depletion

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