So, assuming we don't also all die of burns or cancer or natural disasters caused by the sudden influx of energy into the atmosphere immediately...
According to http://www.epa.gov/ozonedesignations/faq.htm , ground ozone tends to be produced by pollutants, i.e. we are ourselves producing this ozone, mostly by burning fossil fuels.
So we have actually already produced at least 10% of the ozone we'd need to repopulate the upper atmosphere, we're just producing it in the wrong place...
From reading these links, it sounds like ground-level ozone is often a seasonal effect, so it could well be that a lot of this ozone is being produced on a regular basis and then dissipates in some fashion.
So... my back of the envelope calculation would be that yes, if we had unlimited funding and a bit of time, we should be able to produce enough ozone just by burning organic matter. The key question would be, can we get that ozone in the right place?
With unlimited funding, and with a deliberate effort to burn fossil fuels at high altitudes, my gut feeling would be yes... I think the key question would be would we be able to do this in time, before we all burn to a crisp along with most of the plant and animal life on Earth...
According to http://www.epa.gov/ozonedesignations/faq.htm , ground ozone tends to be produced by pollutants, i.e. we are ourselves producing this ozone, mostly by burning fossil fuels.
From http://www.ozonelayer.noaa.gov/science/basics.htm , we find that 90% of that is in the upper layer, so 10% is lower layers.
So we have actually already produced at least 10% of the ozone we'd need to repopulate the upper atmosphere, we're just producing it in the wrong place...
From reading these links, it sounds like ground-level ozone is often a seasonal effect, so it could well be that a lot of this ozone is being produced on a regular basis and then dissipates in some fashion.
So... my back of the envelope calculation would be that yes, if we had unlimited funding and a bit of time, we should be able to produce enough ozone just by burning organic matter. The key question would be, can we get that ozone in the right place?
With unlimited funding, and with a deliberate effort to burn fossil fuels at high altitudes, my gut feeling would be yes... I think the key question would be would we be able to do this in time, before we all burn to a crisp along with most of the plant and animal life on Earth...