Today is the international day that celebrates the ozone layer, the thing stops the sun burning us to a crisp in summer, or more accurately protects the earth from the UV spectrum of the sun’s rays.
This day is the result of a protocol to protect the layer after scientists became worried in the 1980s that ozone-depleting substances, such as refrigerants in air conditioners and refrigerators, were destroying the ozone layer.
In response to their concern, the UN’s Montreal Protocol under the Vienna Convention was agreed in 1987. It began the phase out of the production and consumption of certain ozone-depleting substances by specific deadlines.
There has since been a 98 per cent decrease in the global production of ozone-depleting substances. And the ozone hole has shrunk. In 2016, the mean maximum size of the ozone hole was 20.9 million square kilometres, a 21 percent decrease from 26.6 million square kilometres in 2006.
Find out more about the importance of the ozone layer to life on earth and the impact of ozone-depleting substances on it in Our atmosphere and climate 2017.
See videos and what you can do on the UN's International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer website.
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