Just over 30 years ago, scientists discovered an environmental crisis so terrifying it shocked the world into action. The image of the ozone hole over Antarctica – a widening rip in the very fabric of Earth’s sun-shielding stratosphere – was a symbol of destruction so obvious even politicians couldn’t ignore it.
Policies were quickly put in place to ban the offending chemicals, and so began the long, slow process of fixing the damage. In the decades since, ozone has taken a backseat in the minds of the public as fresh crises have arisen. Today we’re more likely to hear about the perils of climate change, microplastics and urban smog.
The chemical measurements showed that chlorine was definitely the cause of the ozone hole
But the hole remains, and there are signs that ozone depletion cannot yet be ticked off Earth’s environmental watch list. As governments work themselves into a frenzy about the polluted air in cities or the scourge of plastic waste in the sea, there is growing evidence they should not be ignoring the situation above the clouds.