The status of ozone layer
SOME 10-15 years ago, when the news about the ozone layer is on everyday in all media platforms, we were for a time have been much worried about what could possibly happen and we were much concerned about how to survive. We learned the layman’s way that if we burn plastics our ozone thins. If we burn rubber our ozone thins. When our ozone thins, we have less and less screen guard from direct sunlight.
Ozone is a highly reactive molecule that contains three oxygen atoms. It is constantly being formed and broken down in the high atmosphere, 6.2 to 31 miles (10 to 50 kilometers) above Earth, in the region called the stratosphere. The news about ozone layer may have silenced but it does not mean we are through with it. In recent years, there has been a widespread concern that the ozone layer is deteriorating due to the release of pollution containing the chemicals chlorine and bromine. Such deterioration allows large amounts of ultraviolet B rays to reach Earth, which can cause skin cancer and cataracts in humans and harm animals as well.
On the other hand, many scientists have claimed that they are already seeing signs of the ozone on the road to healing. The ozone is more than 4m square kilometer smaller than in 2016. This means that our conscious effort or the constant practice that comes natural or part of our daily existence are in place in all those years when it was first made controversial. Earlier studies had hinted that the ozonef hole was on the mend. According to experts, CFC concentrations peaked above Antarctica in the late 1990s and 2000s. Each passing year allows scientists to gather more convincing data. In a recent Hassler study, it actually “makes the whole development of the Antarctic ozone hole healing very transparent and understandable.”
Other concerned groups from 2000s have even went to frozen continent to conduct pioneering experiments that measured the accumulating chemicals in the ozone layer. Thirty years later, it is very humbling to be able to say now that we have a clear fingerprint that the ozone hole is starting to get better.
The public engagement was key to solving the ozone problem, with people coming together to identify an issue that threatened society and develop new technologies to fix it. In that respect, the most successful environmental treaty in history holds lessons for dealing with a much bigger threat: climate.