INVESTIGATING THE OZONE HOLE

Since the author, a journalist and museum curator, has spent time in Antarctica with research teams investigating the ozone loss above the South Pole, her account of the problem includes some entertaining first-hand vignettes of life at 40 degrees below zero. Meanwhile, she covers the science, history, and prognosis for the ozone layer, with a generous number of color photos and drawings to supplement the clear discussion. The book makes obvious that humans are amazing creatures, both in their ability to foul their world and their ability to discover, analyze, and (maybe) correct problems they cause. By now, it's all but certain that refrigerants and solvents are responsible for introducing chlorine into the stratosphere, breaking down ozone faster than natural processes can replace it and resulting in increased ultraviolet light, which can cause severe heat and gene-mutation damage in plants and animals. But even though the problem is clear, the solution is less so. An impressive, if scary, book, invitingly colorful and well designed. Glossary; index. (Nonfiction. 12+)