The Earth's ozone layer is being filled again

The ozone layer began to thin gradually since the late 70s of the last century, mainly due to human production activities emitting aerosols and refrigerants into the atmosphere. The global effort to protect the ozone layer has finally begun to have positive results. The recent United Nations report confirms this.

The picture on the left shows the low ozone areas in the Antarctic area in September 2000 and the right photo is September 2018. Purple and blue indicate the least ozone, yellow and red are more ozone. (NASA photos)

According to the scientific assessment presented at the United Nations conference on November 5, 2018, the upper ozone layer in the northern half of the hemisphere needs to be completely covered in the upcoming 2030 period and the ozone hole in the South The pole must completely disappear in the period of 2060. While the Southern hemisphere is a bit slower, it must also be fully protected by the ozone layer by the middle of the century.

The ozone layer is located at a distance of 10km from the ground and nearly 40km thick.

According to scientists, this is really good news. If substances that destroy the ozone layer continue to be released into the atmosphere, the consequences will be incalculable. Fortunately, we have begun to reduce this situation.

The ozone layer protects the Earth from ultraviolet rays. Ultraviolet rays cause skin cancer, destroy crops and many other serious problems. The use of artificial chemicals chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) will release chlorine and bromine, which will destroy ozone. In 1987, countries around the world approved the Montreal Protocol to eliminate CFCs.

According to the United Nations report, the ozone layer fell into the worst in the 1990s. At that time, about 10% of the upper ozone layer was destroyed. From 2000 to the present, every decade the ozone layer recovered from 1-3%.

In 2018, the ozone hole in Antarctica reached a peak of nearly 24.8 million km ² , which is about 16% smaller than the record of this hole in 2006 was 29.6 million km ^2. .

The ozone layer is located at a distance of 10km from the ground and nearly 40km thick. If we have not tried to improve the situation over the years, it is very likely that the world will have to cancel 2/3 of the ozone layer around 2065.

However, the results we achieved are only initial success. In East Asia, some of the banned CFC emissions are still increasing. CFCs are used in refrigeration. Currently the world is moving to use other refrigerants instead of CFCs. The Montreal Protocol has also been revised and will come into effect in 2019 to cut some of these toxic gases.

Paul Newman, a NASA scientist and co-chair of the United Nations report, said that no matter how much effort we make now, we cannot achieve complete success before the year. 2060. And then, our children and grandchildren must continue to protect this environment.