Earth’s Ozone Layer Recovers as Airborne Chemicals Decline
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U.N. finds thickening in atmospheric region, helping protect humans and slowing climate change
Airborne chemicals that destroy ozone are now declining for the first time, helping to repair the atmospheric layer that protects humans from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays, according to a new report by a U.N.-backed panel of scientists.
In a report released Monday by the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization, researchers found a significant thickening of the ozone layer, a region of the atmosphere from 9 to 18 miles high that absorbs ultraviolet rays and prevents them from reaching the Earth’s surface.
This layer has been fragile for decades as the result of chemicals used as refrigerants and propellants that destroy ozone, a compound made of three oxygen atoms. When these long-lasting chemicals mix with cold temperatures and meteorological conditions above Antarctica, the reaction creates an ozone hole over the region each spring that varies in size and depth each year.
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