Although climate change has been affecting our planet for a very long time, the real problem seemed to kick off in the 1980s with depletion of the ozone layer.
Ozone is a naturally occurring molecule that forms a protective layer in the stratosphere between 20 and 30 kilometres above the earth’s surface. This relatively thin layer absorbs between 97-99% of the sun’s harmful ultra-violet (UV) radiation.
According to Our World Today, the crucial ozone layer issue seems to have has disappeared from the media, almost as if it never happened! Is the environmental threat actually gone, have we forgotten about it, or have we just learned to wear more sunscreen?
Though the destructive effect of chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) on ozone had already been known for a decade it was not until 1985 that a continent sized ‘hole’ in the ozone layer was discovered over Antarctica.
Co-author of the 2010 International Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion, Dr Matt Tully, says: “What was happening over Antarctica was a wake up call, because no one had suspected that this could happen. It actually alerted the world to what was going on everywhere,”
The discovery was startling; each spring up to two-thirds of the ozone above Antarctica was being destroyed and ozone levels across the globe were beginning to drop by a measurable percent.
According to Dr Tully: “The hole above Antarctica still appears every year in spring-time, but hasn’t been getting any worse for quite a few years now. It could be as late as 2080 before the ozone layer makes a full recovery! It is a very positive example of the global community addressing a global problem.”
The fact that the earth will take a century to repair the damage done by humans in a matter of decades should be a timely reminder that our planet works on a different timescale to us.
Though the issue of ozone depletion may have cooled we now face numerous environmental issues that are still heating up.
More information: www.ourworldt.com.au