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Noticia del New York Times

Nearly three decades after the world banned chemicals that were destroying the
atmospheres protective ozone layer, scientists said Thursday that there were signs
the atmosphere was on the mend.
The researchers said they had found fingerprints indicating that the seasonal
ozone hole over Antarctica, a cause of concern since it was discovered in 1984, was
getting smaller. Although the improvement has been slight so far, it is an indication
that the Montreal Protocol the 1987 treaty signed by almost every nation that
phased out the use of chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs is
having its intended effect.
Full recovery of the ozone hole is not expected until the middle of the century.
This is just the beginning of what is a long process, said Susan
Solomon, an atmospheric chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and lead author of the study, published in the journal
Science.
Ozone high in the stratosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing
damaging ultraviolet rays from the sun. But ozone is destroyed by
reactions with chlorine and other atoms that are released by CFCs and
similar chemicals, which were used for decades as refrigerants and
propellants.
More ultraviolet radiation leads to increased incidence of skin cancers,
cataracts and other health problems.
Scientists who pushed for the Montreal Protocol always acknowledged
that recovery of the ozone layer would be very slow, because CFCs linger
in the stratosphere for a long time.
Think of it like a patient with a disease, Dr. Solomon said. First, it was
getting worse. Then it stopped it was stable but still in bad shape.
Now, she said, as molecules slowly decay away from the atmosphere,
its getting just a little bit better.
David Fahey, a research physicist at the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration who was not involved in the ozone study,
said Dr. Solomons work gives us a critical level of confidence that we
are moving in the direction we want to see.
It also reinforces that the Montreal Protocol has been a resounding
success, Dr. Fahey said. It stands head and shoulders above any other
environmental treaty.

While ozone has been depleted in the Arctic and mid-latitude regions as
well, the destruction over Antarctica is greater, in part because
temperatures there are so cold. Technically, the depleted area is not a
hole, but rather a large region of the stratosphere in some years, it is
larger than the North American continent where the concentration of
ozone is below a certain threshold.
Because the reactions that cause ozone to be destroyed require sunlight,
this thinning begins each year in late August, when winter in the
Southern Hemisphere is ending, and reaches its maximum by
September and October. The ozone layer recovers later in the year, and
then the cycle repeats.
Ozone depletion is a complex process that is affected by variables like
temperature, wind and volcanic activity. So Dr. Solomon and the other
researchers looked at data from satellites and balloon-borne instruments
taken each September. That made it easier to separate the effects of the
decline in chlorine atoms from the other factors. They also compared the
data with the results of computer models.
The study found that the ozone hole had shrunk by about 1.5 million
square miles, or about one-third the area of the United States, from
2000 to 2015.
A 2009 analysis by NASA scientists showed what the world would have
been like had there been no Montreal Protocol, and CFC production and
use had continued. By midcentury, their simulations showed, the ozone
hole would have covered the world, and at noon on a clear summer day
in a city like New York, the UV index, a measure of the damage the sun
can do, would have caused a noticeable sunburn on unprotected skin in
10 minutes.
That dire situation has been avoided thanks to societys collective efforts,
Dr. Solomon said.
We are seeing the planet respond as expected to the actions of people,
she said. Its really a story of the public getting engaged, policy makers
taking action, and business getting engaged.