Ban Siphoning Ozone

I don’t know much about roundabouts, auto emissions, and the ozone layers, but evidently, they’re connected.

Sena and I were talking about the roundabouts in Iowa City and Coralville. The definition of them and the instructions about how to drive in and out of them is simple although some drivers can get confused about the rules. The information about them on the Coralville city website is pretty clear and it also describes the advantage for the environment. One of them is that they reduce vehicle emissions due to decreased idling times.

Not when drivers get confused and stop in the roundabout. That happens sometimes.

As usual, this topic and many others that involve the activities of humans, whether or not they interact with extraterrestrials, reminds me of quotes from Men in Black (MIB) movies. The ones that occur to me about this issue are from MIB II:

Jarra: They caught me siphoning ozone from their atmosphere to sell on the black market. They’re very touchy about this global warming thing. (Note: global warming is not caused by ozone (O3) depletion).

Jarra: Hello, Jay. Long time.

Agent J: Jarra! What’s up, man? Wow, you look great! What’s it been, five years?

Jarra: And 42 days, thanks to you. You count every one when you’re locked away like primate.

Agent J: Well, you shouldn’t have been trying to steal our ozone.

I tried to learn a little bit about this by searching the web. It’s a little complicated. There is good ozone and bad ozone. The ozone in the stratosphere is good and stealing it is what Jarra got busted for. The bad ozone is lower in the atmosphere, is a marker for pollution, and vehicle emissions cause that.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a slogan for that: “Good Up High, Bad Nearby.”

On the other hand, I found an article that says vehicle air conditioners can contribute to depleting stratospheric ozone (the good ozone).

I don’t know how to break this to you, but I wonder if the government might consider making it a crime to drive cars with air conditioners (that would be all of them, I think).

And if coming to a full stop with the air conditioner on blast mode inside of a roundabout could get a driver arrested, then that might make it less likely you’d get stuck behind such a driver.

You’re welcome and thank you for your time.