|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ozone hole may heal Dr
David Hofman and Dr. Susan Solomon, two of the scientists who helped
alert the world to the existence of a hole in the ozone layer have
said that they were hopeful that the ozone layer was recovering.
"I’m very optimistic that we will have a normal ozone layer
sometime, not in my lifetime, but perhaps in yours," BBC quoted
Dr David Hofman, who works for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) as saying. I think it’s very important to make
sure that we actually measure ozone— not only not getting any worse,
but actually starting to improve, to be sure that the actions we have
taken internationally have been effective," she said while
presenting their findings to mark the 20th anniversary of their first
research alerting the world to the problems of ozone-depleting
CFCs. Hofman said the phasing out of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) from
products such as aerosol sprays and refrigerators had led to a vast
improvement in the ozone layer adding they were hoping the hole may
"heal" fully over the next 60 years. Ozone is a molecule
that is composed of three oxygen atoms. It is responsible for
filtering out harmful ultra-violet radiation (less than 290 nanometers) from the Sun. The gas is constantly being made and
destroyed in the stratosphere, about 30 km (19 miles) above the Earth.
In an unpolluted atmosphere, this cycle of production and
decomposition is in equilibrium. But CFCs and the other
Montreal-restricted chemicals rise into the stratosphere where they
are broken down by the Sun’s rays. Chlorine and bromine atoms
released from the man-made products then act as catalysts to decompose
ozone. The production of CFC and other chemicals responsible for
depleting the ozone layer was restricted by the Montreal Protocol,
which became effective in 1987. —ANI
|
||
|
|
||
Dr Solomon of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change however, added that a lot still needed to be
done by the scientific community to counter this threat. "There’s
a lot more to be done from a scientific perspective in terms of what I
would call accountability. 