EARTH'S OZONE HOLE IS HEALING
Estimates are it will
There is big news about the environment: Scientists say a hole in
Earths protective ozone layer is starting to heal.
A new study confirms the hole is getting smaller. A report on the
study was published late last month in the journal Science.
The scientists say the reason for the improvement is a reduction in
the release of man-made chemicals into Earths atmosphere. These
chemicals are called chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs for short.
Its a big surprise, said Susan Solomon, the lead writer of the
report. I didnt think it would be this early, she said.
Solomon is an atmospheric chemist and works at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
Ozone is a form of oxygen gas. It is found in the air we breathe and
in the upper atmosphere. Near Earth, ozone in the air is a danger
to life. It is a pollutant. But the ozone layer, 10 to 50 kilometers up in
the atmosphere, protects life on Earth. It helps to block dangerous
ultraviolet (UV) waves from the sun. It stops them from reaching the
planets surface.
Researchers first discovered the hole in the ozone layer over
Antarctica more than 30 years ago.
The new report credits the shrinking ozone hole to a worldwide ban
on chlorofluorocarbons.
CFCs once were commonly used in many products, including
aerosols, cleaning substances, refrigerators and plastics. Scientists
found that when released into the air, the chemicals damaged the
ozone layer, creating the hole.
CFCs were banned when world leaders signed an agreement called
the Montreal Protocol in 1987.
Susan Solomon compared the ozone hole to a patient that needs
healing.
It isn't just that the patient is in remission,'' Solomon said. "He's
actually starting to get better. The patient got very sick in the 80s
when we were pumping all that chlorine into the atmosphere.
Measurements taken in September showed the ozone hole has
shrunk since the year 2000. The new numbers show that the hole is
smaller by 4.5 million square kilometers. That is about half the area
of the U.S. mainland.
One year was different, however. In 2015, the ozone hole got
bigger, not smaller. After looking at scientific records, Solomon said
that increase resulted from a natural event. She said it was caused
by the eruption of the Calbuco volcano in Chile.
While the healing is coming earlier than many scientists expected, it
is an ongoing, continuing process. The ozone hole will not be
completely closed for at least another 30 years.
close by around 2050.
"We can now be confident that the things we've done have put the
planet on a path to heal," Solomon said.
"There is a sense of mission accomplished,''' said Mario Molina in
an email to VOA. Molina works at the University of California, San
Diego. He shared the 1995 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his
research on the ozone issue. He praised this latest study, but was
not involved in it.
However, there is other news about Antarctica that is not as good.
For the first time in four million years, Antarctica registered carbon
dioxide (CO2) levels above the level of 400 parts per million. That
information comes from U.S. scientists at the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The far southern hemisphere was the last place on earth where
CO2 had not yet reached this mark, of 400 parts per million (ppm),
said Pieter Tans. He is the lead scientist of NOAA's Global
Greenhouse Gas Reference Network.
Global CO2 levels will not return to values below 400 ppm in our
lifetimes, and almost certainly for much longer, he said.
Scientists say too much CO2 causes temperatures on Earth to rise.
CO2 levels usually go up in colder months. In the warmer months,
plants in the northern hemisphere use some of it, and that lowers
the levels. But NOAA notes that plants are not enough to stop the
rise of CO2 levels. Those levels have risen every year since 1958,
when measurements began.
Tans said that evidence shows that the CO2 increase is caused
entirely by human activities. These activities include burning oil
and other fossil fuels for energy.
Because the burning of fossil fuel has been at a record high during
the last several years, Tans said, the rate of CO2 increase has also
been at a record high. He said some of the gas will stay in the
atmosphere for thousands of years.
Im Anne Ball. / And Im Bryan Lynn.
Words in This Story
Layer n. amount of something spread over an area
Ultraviolet adj. rays of light that cannot be seen
Chlorofluorocarbon n. an organic compound that damaged the
ozone layer
Aerosol n. a substance like hair spray kept in a container under
pressure that is released in a fine spray when a button is pushed
Confident adj. a feeling or belief you can do something well
Global adj. involving the entire world
Greenhouse gas n. a gas in the atmosphere that absorbs and
emits radiation, causing greenhouse effect and warming of Earths
temperature.