The ozone layer is healing, but scientists say this is not the end of environmental issues
This combination of images made available by NASA shows areas of low ozone above Antarctica on September 2000, left, and September 2018. The purple and blue colors are where there is the least ozone, and the yellows and reds are where there is more ozone. A United Nations report released on Monday, Nov. 5, 2018, says Earth’s protective ozone layer is finally healing after aerosol sprays and coolants ate away at it.
NASA via AP
A new United Nations report explained the hopeful information that the earth’s ozone layer is gradually on the mend. However, scientists say there is more work to be done.
Associated Press contributor Seth Borenstein summarized a scientific assessment from an International Studies Association conference in Quito, Ecuador, explaining that the hole in the ozone layer above the northern hemisphere should vanish by the 2030s and the Antarctic hole should follow in the 2060s.
Professor of Biology Dr. Michael Freake remembers when the depletion of the ozone layer was breaking news, so he is glad that people could come together to figure out a solution.
“It’s actually one of the success stories in science,” Freake said.
According to Freake, CFCs are chemicals that were contained in several products in the ’80s and ’90s, such as aerosol sprays, refrigerators and foam in McDonald’s containers. He said that these chemicals would go into the stratosphere, where there ozone is at its highest concentration. They would then break down the ozone, allowing more UV rays to enter the atmosphere, which resulted in more radiation on Earth.
Associate Professor of Biology Dr. Thaddeus McRae said that this radiation multiplies health issues as well as damage to the environment. Because of this damage, Borenstein explained that several countries agreed on the Montreal Protocol in 1987, which aimed to eradicate the use of CFCs.
Freake explains that this road to recovery is a great example of how educated and passionate people can come together to make a difference. He said that this consensus was reached because there was a fairly simple solution to the CFC problem: alternative chemicals.
Still to come is the process of healing. McRae explains that humanity must be careful of the next step it takes.
“The process of recovery will be gradual, with ebb and flow, and our choices over the next decades and century will affect the rate of recovery and even whether recovery continues or reverses,” McRae said. “We humans often think in very short terms—fractions of a human lifespan—and, in those terms, complete healing could seem a long way off.”
McRae said that man’s impact on the global climate is still a pressing issue. Freake agrees and explained the difference between ozone depletion and global warming. While most of the ozone is in the second layer of the atmosphere, most weather occurs in the first layer, the troposphere. This layer traps the heat from radiation on earth; this is what causes the global climate to rise. He says that this problem could not be solved in the same time frame as the ozone layer.
“[With the ozone layer], there was a really clear route to how you could fix the problem,” Freake said. “And that’s very different from the climate change issue.”
Additionally, according to Borenstein, there is speculation that the healing of the ozone layer could further warm the climate of Antarctica, but the pros of the mending outweigh that potential con.
Though it seems as if the effects on the atmosphere are never really absent, the healing of the ozone layer shows that there can be good news concerning this subject. People are constantly working to acquire knowledge and untangle the mess of problems.
Freake believes that the first step toward collaboratively achieving a solution is to be aware of research and reports. He says that scientists are conservative, taking their time to figure out the facts.
“In reality, science is a process; it takes time, accumulation of evidence,” Freake said. “When we have scientific consensus, people should listen.”
To learn more about the potential healing of the ozone layer, read the UN report.
