Out of Style: Has The Issue Of Ozone Layer Depletion Become Passé?
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Ah, the 60s…it was a time of the baby boomers, rock and roll, as well as the beehive and bouffant. The only way to get your hair into a towering beehive was to spray your tresses with liberal amounts of hairspray. Perhaps it was through this chemical haze of pubescent teens generously dousing their hair (and the atmosphere) with hairspray that someone thought that there has to be something wrong with this – and it wasn’t just spraying your hair with plastic and vinyl until it turned as hard as a rock. Studies showing that CFCs (found in aerosol cans, among other things) was harmful to the ozone – a layer in the earth’s atmosphere that protects us from some of the more dangerous Ultra Violet rays of the sun – and has depleted incrementally over the years.
These studies began in the late 70s and had given proof that CFCs do, indeed, contribute to ozone depletion and thus banned. Corporations and industry lobbied against this, claiming that such studies were “bogus” or “ludicrous.” However, it was an article in Nature magazine in 1985 that showed that the ozone layer above Antarctica diminished by 10% that year. Furthermore, it was discovered that a computer program in one of NASA’s satellites (Nimbus-7) was disregarding such data and identifying them as “errors.” Quickly, people around the world began to react and were up in arms about saving the ozone layer. In The Montreal Protocol of 1987, for example, countries agreed to reduce the use of CFCs by 1999. Countries from around the world vowed to reduce CFCs by legislating various clean air acts, and companies began policing themselves, in fear of backlash from the public.
So after the 80s, what exactly happened to the ozone layer issue? Did ozone layer advocacy go out with the lacquered hair and mod clothing? Is ozone layer depletion the red headed stepchild of environmentalism, deferring to its younger, more popular sibling, climate change?
While certainly not as hot-button an issue as climate change (and was not the subject of an Academy Award Winning Documentary and Song, narrated by a Nobel Peace Prize-winning former US Vice President), the ozone layer remains at the top level of scientists’ minds. Ozone depletion varies on location; places like the Antartic have some of the lowest levels of ozone. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the ozone layers globally have been reduced by as much as 4% from 1997 to 2005.
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Research on the ozone layer continues to this day by such agencies as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, division of the US Department of Commerce). As part of their general climate change research, NOAA analyzes the rate of ozone depletion all over the world, sending out instruments and scientists to study the varying particle levels in the atmosphere. The Center for Atmospheric Science in Cambridge in the UK is another research facility that conducts studies on the ozone layer and topospheric and stratospheric chemistry.
The Montreal Protocol gained further support in London in 1990, where additional amendments were added, including the actual phase-out of harmful chemicals before the year 2000; in 1992, at a meeting in Copenhagen, the due date for eliminating CFCs was moved up to 1996.
Industry also took notice of this issue, as technological developments improved and became readily available. After the ban on CFCs, companies quickly created products that were CFC-free, from refrigerators and air conditioners to asthma inhalers and office supplies (and yes, even hairspray!).
So perhaps, even though ozone depletion in not quite in vogue these days, many people out there are still tuned into this topic and it seems all of this hard work has paid off. In 2006, NASA and NOAA released a report that the ozone may be on the mend, showing pictures of the hole over Antartica shrinking from 2000 to 2006. Don’t take out that can of AquaNet™ though; scientists are predicting that full recovery may not take place until 2068.
If you’d like to help out in the effort to restore the ozone layer, there are a couple of things you can do: First, patronize eco-friendly and “ozone friendly” products, whether it be your water heater or your deodorant. Inspect your old appliances and even your car air conditioner to make sure they don’t leak CFCs or replace them entirely with eco-friendly ones. Yes, you have to take a hot shower and smell good, but not at the expense of the ozone layer!
Take action by writing to your government to urge them to support the protection of the ozone layer. Gather signatures in your community and let your leaders know that ozone layer depletion is a serious issue and that people are paying attention!
By Maria Belgado
Additional resources:
NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) page about the Ozone Layer
Environmental Protection Agency’s Q & A on Ozone Layer Depletion
FAQ on the Ozone by Jeffrey Masters, PHD, Director of Meteorology, Weather Underground Inc.
Website of the European Union
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Tags: CFC, Montreal Protocol, NOAA, ozone depletion, ozone layer
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