Since the industrial revolution, we have changed our planet in many ways. Every step we take toward industrialization takes us away from nature. And nowadays the effect of all these things we can see clearly. The reason for the Earth’s today’s miserable condition is the appropriate behavior of the human species. Our scientists have warned us many times about several things from climate change to coronavirus but, we ignore them. And the result is now in front of us.
But…
There is an example in history where scientists have warned us, and we act like a good child, did what they said and things get improved. So today we will dive through the history and we will try to learn from that One and Only example we have.
The story begins 36 years ago. When the Ozone hole was first spotted, which is now headed for a happy ending, thanks to outstanding global action.
Let’s see first what the ozone layer is and what was destroying it.
The ozone layer lies about 15 and 30 kilometers above Earth’s surface. This blanket of ozone, or O3, blocks most of the sun’s high-frequency ultraviolet rays. These UV rays can cause skin cancer and cataracts in humans, as well as reproductive problems in fish, crabs, frogs. These even create reproductive problems in the single-celled phytoplankton at the bottom of the ocean food chain.
Ozone is created naturally when oxygen(O2) molecules high in the atmosphere get broken by sunlight into two free oxygen atoms. A free atom can then bond with an unbroken O2 molecule, and ozone is born.
Ozone is unstable, however, and it’s easily broken up by trace elements.
Invented in the 1920s, Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) proved to be an exceptional problem for Ozone. Because many of these synthetic chemicals can persist for decades, allowing them to make their way into the upper atmosphere.
In that rarefied air, ultraviolet light breaks the molecular bonds in CFCs and free chlorine atoms get released. Chlorine then destroys ozone molecules by “stealing” their oxygen atoms.
When the hole first discover
Scientists had theorized since the 1970s about the chemistry that could lead to ozone depletion. But in May 1985 scientists with the British Antarctic Survey shocked the world when they announced the discovery of a huge hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica.
Technically a substantial thinning of the ozone layer, the ozone “hole” has been opening every spring since the 1970s, the scientists reported.
Their data, collected at the Halley Research Station in Antarctica, suggested that CFCs were to blame. That’s because atmospheric conditions during the cold, dark, Antarctic winters were building stockpiles of CFCs over the South Pole.
Returning spring sunshine would then cause an abundance of free chlorine, depleting ozone levels above Antarctica by as much as 65%.
“One lesson is that the planet can change very rapidly in an unexpected way,” said Jonathan Shanklin, one of the British scientists who made the ozone hole discovery.
Extraordinary actions
Fixing the Ozone Hole was a really big and unexpected decision.
The disturbing discovery set the stage for an environmental triumph: the Montreal Protocol of 1987.
This pact to phase out the use of CFCs and restore the ozone layer was eventually signed by every country in the United Nations—the first UN treaty to achieve universal ratification.
The unparalleled cooperation has had a major impact.
“If we had just kept letting CFCs increase at a pretty nominal rate, characteristic of the 1970s, the decreased ozone levels of the hole would have eventually covered the entire planet,” said atmospheric physicist Paul Newman of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
“Global ozone dropped a little bit [after CFCs were banned], but the good news is that if we had done nothing, it would have gotten really, really bad.”
Now a complete rebound seems imminent. Some scientists project that by 2080 global ozone will return to 1950s levels.
Read more: BEE POSITIVE
Ozone layer recovery was the one and only example we have in concern of environmental issues when scientists have said some facts, and politicians with other entities have acted instantly. This example shows a ray of light for all of us that we can still fix current environmental problems if all come together. We need to wake up our politicians, groups, businesses, parents, and anyone who can help to make the change. We need to act as fast as we did at that time when scientists first told us about the ozone hole.
If you have some suggestion on which we should write or you have any query and something else you can contact us. Please do share this blog with your family, friends, and others if you have found this blog informative.
