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Earth's ozone layer is finally healing, says UN
Why is it in news?
- The ozone layer is finally beginning to heal from all the damage caused by aerosol sprays and other man-made chemicals, a new United Nations report has revealed.
- The protective shield in Earth’s atmosphere had been thinning out before scientists raised the alarm about the impact of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the 1980s.
- As a result of bans introduced by global governments, the upper ozone layer above the Northern Hemisphere should be completely restored in the 2030s.
- A gaping hole in the ozone over the Antarctic won’t disappear until later – sometime in the 2060s, according to a scientific assessment released at a conference in Quito, Ecuador.
- The ozone layer in the Southern Hemisphere should be repaired by mid-century.
Ozone depletion
- The ozone layer starts around six miles above the Earth and protects the planet from the Sun’s cancer-causing ultraviolet rays.
- Use of CFCs in aerosol sprays and refrigerator coolants began eating away at the ozone in the 1970s.
- But in 1987, countries around the world agreed in the Montreal Protocol to phase out CFCs and businesses came up with replacements for spray cans and other forms of the harmful chemicals.
- At its worst in the late 1990s, about 10 per cent of the upper ozone layer was depleted.
- If nothing had been done to stop the thinning, the world would have destroyed two-thirds of its ozone layer by 2065
- One potential problem is that new technology has found an increase in emissions of a particular kind of banned CFC in east Asia, the report noted.
- And replacements now being used to cool cars and refrigerators need to be replaced themselves with chemicals that don’t make global warming worse.
- An amendment to the Montreal Protocol that goes into effect next year would cut the use of some of those gases.
Source
The Hindu