World Ozone Day 2021: How Ozone Layer Protects Us On Earth, And It Needs Protecting

Every year, September 16 is marked as the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer. In 1994, the United Nations decreed the day, hoping to shed light on the importance of preserving the layer that protects all life on Earth from dangerous ultraviolet radiations that emerge from our central star, the Sun.?

On World Ozone Day 2021, let's take a closer look at how the ozone layer shields earth from some of the nastiest radiation from the sun.

The ozone layer protects life on Earth

Our Sun is the maker as well as the breaker - its light ensures life on Earth, but without the ozone layer's protective shield, no life on Earth would be possible. In the ozone layer, our planet finds the equilibrium needed to preserve life.?

In the late 1970s, scientists discovered a hole in the ozone layer, caused by gases that deplete the ozone layer.?These gases are found in cooling technology including refrigeration and air conditioning.?

Also read:?Earth's Ozone Layer Is Healing As China Stops Its CFC-11 Emissions

To protect the ozone layer, countries signed the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer in 1985. While the awareness about ozone's importance for Earthlings may have existed for decades now, the need to protect it is now more dire than ever.?

NASA

Life on Earth is facing a multitude of threats - unfortunately, all of these developed as a result of rapid industrialisation activities undertaken by human beings over the last century.??Climate change is now causing erratic weather patterns, causing forest fires and flooding across the globe not seen before.But the Montreal Protocol, signed as part of the Vienna Convention appears to be working.?

By the middle of this century, the ozone layer is expected to return to pre-1980 values.Greenhouse gases, methyl bromide, methyl chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, and chemical families of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrofluorocarbon (HFCs) are responsible for the depletion of the ozone layer.?

Is Earth's ozone layer safe now?

Even though the Montreal Protocol averted a full-fledged crisis, we're not out of the woods yet. A study by researchers at Lancaster University from this year and published in Nature explained how bad the situation would have been in the absence of ozone protection.?

AFP

Also read:?The 25 Million Sq Km Ozone Hole Over Antarctica Is Record-Low; Thanks To Reduced Chlorine Use

Earth would have scorched, quite literally with a temperature rise of 0.5 to 1°C by the end of this century.If ozone layer is left unprotected, it will just give climate change the edge it needs to wipe life on Earth.?

Without protection from UV radiation, plants would not be able to trap carbon dioxide... hence speeding climate change. The study also claimed that the ozone layer would have disappeared by 2040 in the absence of Montreal Protocol.?

NASA

How can you help protect the ozone layer??

Don't use gases that cause depletion and the products that employ these gases like CFCs. Taking care of your appliances like air conditioners helps prevent the leakage of CFCs into the atmosphere.?

Also read:?Melting Permafrost Could Release ‘Methane Bombs’ To Accelerate Global Warming

In addition, you could depend more on public transport and cut down on personal vehicle usage to help take off the pressure. The Vienna Protocol is testimony to the power of effective political action that helps ease the pressure on Earth's resources and natural limits.?

Without the same kind of go-getter approach, humans don't stand a chance against climate change, of which ozone layer health is an important part.?

For more on the latest happenings in the world of science and technology, keep reading Indiatimes.com. And let us know if you're worried about the health of Earth's ozone layer, which shields life from sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation.