Lightning can kill you

[ACSpectre]

While I do not dispute the human contribution in polluting our air, here are some facts that you probably won't hear from most environmentalists.

Ozone is the main component of smog. It is produced in a chemical reaction when the products of combustion are released into the air. It is also produced when the air in a specific area is super-heated, such as a discharge of electricity.

A single lightning strike that is a mile long, (from cloud to ground) produces 418 pounds of ozone. The USDoE conservatively estimates that there are 8,640,000 lightning strikes around the world every day. It is a matter of simple math to determine that more ozone is produced daily from natural causes than humans produce.

Lightning has been occurring since the birth of the planet. The number one cause of man made ozone, the internal combustion engine, has only been around about 100 years.

 

[Jonny]

Lightning is known to produce nitrogen oxides within thunderstorms. These chemicals can react with others in the presence of sunlight to produce ozone. Since most lightning occurs inside a storm, the added ozone tends to show up several miles high rather than near the earth's surface, so it doesn't add significantly to ozone pollution at ground level.

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/infopack/lightning/faq.html

 

[ACSpectre]

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/infopack/lightning/faq.html

I would agree with all of that except this statement; "....it doesn't add significantly to ozone pollution at ground level."

The figure of 418 pounds is the amount of ozone produced in the mile long area of the strike, well within the atmosphere were it is detrimental to air quality. While most of the ozone produced by a lightning strike is indeed released much higher in the atmosphere, the amount released at ground level is still much more than from any man made source.

http://teamenterprise.ca/pages/OzoneProductionfromLightning.pdf