The healing process
In somewhat rare positive climate news, the Earth’s ozone layer looks on track to recover in the coming decades, according to a new report from the UN.
The healing progress is a direct result of human efforts, per the report, largely due to an international agreement known as the Montreal Protocol which was established in the late 1980s to target and regulate nearly 100 man-made chemicals that were harming the protective layer.
Fixing a hole
A hole in the ozone layer — a thin part of our atmosphere that absorbs most of the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation — was discovered by three scientists from the British Atlantic Survey in 1985. Subsequently, it came to light that substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which could be found in spray cans and air conditioners at the time, were wearing away the layer, prompting the Montreal Protocol just a few years later.
The landmark environmental agreement certainly seems to have been working, cutting down emissions and consumption. Ozone-depleting substance emissions, like those from CFCs, peaked at nearly 1.5m tonnes in 1988, a figure which had fallen nearly 80% by 2014.
