Deadly Danger Downsized

Decades ago, we heard the news of encroaching doom. An ozone hole had formed over the South Pole. If it continued to grow indefinitely, all living things would be utterly vulnerable to the deadliest rays of the sun. Just stepping outdoors would be an invitation to skin cancer.

Thanks to the hard work of dozens of nations, working together on atmospheric issues, doom has been averted.

For more than 10 years, nations around the world have reduced or eliminated use of ozone-reducing gasses in household products and elsewhere. Halon in fire extinguishers is a thing of the past. CFC-containing aerosols in deodorants and cleaning products are gone.

The question, of course, was whether the actions were too little, too late.

Since the late 1990s, researchers have used a variety of tools, including Earth-observing satellites, to determine whether the ozone layer could, in fact, repair itself. It seems the answer is "yes."

As reported in Science Daily, "data show a decrease in ozone from 1979 until 1997, and a small increase since then." And as Jo Urban, one of the project researchers, mentioned in the article, "We hope to see a significant recovery of (upper stratospheric) ozone in the next years using longer, extended satellite time-series."

Assuming the trend continues in the right direction (and there's plenty of reason to assume it will), we may have actually averted one major atmospheric catastrophe. Only a few dozen to go, and we may well be on the road to recovery.

Photo courtesy of NASA