We all might be really happy that the COVID-19 lockdown resulted in pollution levels around the world to drop considerably and thus helped in healing the planet. But what has happened right now is quite the opposite of what you¡¯d expect.
Experts at European Union¡¯s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (ECMWF) have revealed that a hole has been developed in our ozone layer which is one of the largest humanity has ever seen till date. According to experts, ozone layer hole extends around 8.8 million square miles or around 23 million square kilometres over Antarctica. To put things into perspective, this is twice the size of the entire terrestrial area of the United States of America.
In case you skipped the science class in school, you¡¯d know that the ozone layer is a crucial part of our planet¡¯s atmosphere which prevents ultraviolet radiation from entering Earth and keeps us safe. However, this hole usually is known to appear annually between the month of September which goes through December.?
Vincent-Henri Peuch, director of Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service at ECMWF, explained, ¡°There is much variability in how far ozone hole events develop each year. The 2020 ozone hole resembles the one from 2018, which also was a quite large hole, and is definitely in the upper part of the pack of the last fifteen years or so. With the sunlight returning to the South Pole in the last weeks, we saw continued ozone depletion over the area.?
The reason for the appearance of this hole is linked to the changes in weather patterns that impact the atmosphere and one of the major reasons is the use of ozone-depleting CFCs or Chlorofluorocarbons that are still being used by some nations on Earth. The Montreal Protocol in the 1980s had already banned the use of CFCs and other ozone depleting substances, yet some are secretly using them.
He added, ¡°After the unusually small and short-lived ozone hole in 2019, which was driven by special meteorological conditions, we are registering a rather large one again this year, which confirms that we need to continue enforcing the Montreal Protocol banning emissions of ozone-depleting chemicals.¡±