Ozone layer healing thanks to cooperation

Finally some good news from the environment.

The ozone layer – which protects us from the sun’s harmful radiation – is slowly healing, the United Nations announced Monday.

“It’s really good news,” said NASA scientist Paul Newman, co-author of the U.N. report.

Over the northern half of the world, the layer should be completely repaired by the 2030s, the report said. The good news is due to decades of worldwide cooperation to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals.

The infamous ozone hole over Antarctica is also recovering, although it will continue to occur each year until the 2060s. (Ozone will take longer to heal in the southern half of the world.)

The ozone layer acts like sunscreen, shielding the planet from ultraviolet radiation that can cause skin cancer and cataracts, suppress immune systems and damage plants.

The naturally occurring ozone high in the atmosphere is the “good” ozone in contrast to the “bad” ozone near the surface, which is man-made pollution.

Scientists first discovered the dramatic thinning in Earth’s protective ozone layer in the 1970s and determined the production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) caused the problem.

In the late 1980s, 196 countries signed the Montreal Protocol, a treaty that limited production of CFCs around the world. Businesses soon came up with safer alternatives.

Scientists say the way humanity tackled the problem also provides a template for how we can counteract human-caused global warming.