According to a new study, the Ozone layer is healing and has the potential to fully recover.
According to a scientific paper published in the ‘nature,’ there is success in the reversal of environmental damage. It further says that collective global action can make a difference.
Ozone layer: The ozone layer is a protective shield in the Earth’s stratosphere, which absorbs most of the ultraviolet radiation reaching us from the sun.
If the ozone layer is damaged, then it can make it difficult to survive on Earth. It started affecting with overuse of Chlorofluorocarbons ( CFCs). CFCs made whole in Ozone Layer over Antarctica. Anticipating the seriousness of the problem, an international treaty called ” Montreal Protocol” was adopted to ban them.
Antara Banerjee, who is the Lead Author of the study, told The Independent, ” We found signs of climate change in the southern hemisphere, specifically in the air circulation patterns.
She further said, ” The challenge was showing that these changing air circulation patterns were due to the shrinking ozone hole following the implementation of the Montreal protocol in 1985.
The recovery in the ozone layer started in 2000 as the CFCs from spray cans and refrigerants started to decline around 2000.
Ozone depletion had affected many regions. In Australia, winters were drying because the jet stream was moving further south and taking rain-bearing storms away from the region. On the other hand, in regions like South America, ozone layer depletion had caused an expansion of the tropics and led to more rainfall.
The news has come as a savior for not only these regions but is a ray of hope to fight against climate change.
It has been hoped that if countries keep adhering to the Montreal protocol, then the ozone layer is projected to recover at different times, in different parts of the atmosphere. Antara added in her interview that ” This recovery, in some regions, might happen in the next couple of decades and in others much later in the century.”
