What happened to the ozone hole?
For once, a piece of good news about the environment – the ozone hole has stopped growing. The announcement was made this week by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The discovery of the ozone hole over the Antartic was made in 1985 and, at its worst, it expanded to the size of North America.
However, the production of the offending chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) was restricted by the Montreal Protocol in 1987.and in 2003 there was the first evidence of a slowing down of the growth. The problem is not solved – the Arctic is expected to recover in the 2030s and the Antartic in around 2060 – but we have turned the corner. This is a scientific success story.
More information here.