Experts hail most recent data on ozone hole as 'reassuring': 'This progress should be celebrated'

There was encouraging news recently released from scientists in the U.S. and Europe regarding the hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic. Copernicus, "Europe's eyes on Earth," along with NOAA and NASA, reported the hole shrank in size significantly this year.

"The earlier closure and relatively small size of this year's ozone hole is a reassuring sign," noted Laurence Rouil, the director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, according to the Guardian. "[It] reflects the steady year-on-year progress we are now observing in the recovery of the ozone layer thanks to the ODS [ozone-depleting substances] ban."

Copernicus serves as the EU's primary Earth-monitoring system, providing worldwide climate and environmental data through satellite observations and modeling. The agency's scientists say the hole in the ozone layer was not only the smallest observed since 2019, but also the shortest-lived.

"This progress should be celebrated as a timely reminder of what can be achieved when the international community works together to address global environmental challenges," added Rouil.

In a separate announcement, NOAA and NASA reported that the 2025 ozone hole was the fifth-smallest since 1992, the year a landmark international agreement aimed at phasing out ozone-depleting chemicals began to be implemented. 

"As predicted, we're seeing ozone holes trending smaller in area than they were in the early 2000s," according to Paul Newman, the Chief Scientist for Earth Sciences at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in the Earth Sciences Division. "They're forming later in the season and breaking up earlier. This year's hole would have been more than one million square miles larger if there was still as much chlorine in the stratosphere as there was 25 years ago."

NOAA and NASA scientists say the ozone layer's continued recovery is projected to be complete by the end of the century as countries swap out harmful substances for safer replacements. 

"Since peaking around the year 2000, levels of ozone depleting substances in the Antarctic stratosphere have declined by about a third relative to pre-ozone-hole levels," added Stephen Montzka, senior scientist with NOAA's Global Monitoring Laboratory.

Earth's ozone layer, located in the stratosphere about 7 to 31 miles overhead, works like a global sunscreen. It shields living things from the sun's dangerous ultraviolet rays. When this shield weakens, extra UV exposure can increase skin cancer rates, damage crops, and cause widespread health concerns.

The Montreal Protocol, which has helped bring about the ozone layer's recovery, has been lauded as an example of what the world can do when countries come together to address environmental challenges. 

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"At a time when multilateralism is under severe strain, the Montreal Protocol to help protect the ozone layer stands out as a powerful symbol of hope," observed UN Secretary-General António Guterres in a statement issued on the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer in 2024. "It is a reminder that when countries show political resolve for the common good, change is possible."

Many of the same chemicals responsible for damaging the ozone layer also act as heat-trapping pollution, driving the Earth's temperature higher. 

"The ozone layer is healing, and is likely to recover in several decades," noted Mario Molina, Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry, and Durwood Zaelke, President, Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, in a United Nations Environment Program report. 

"But that is only part of the Protocol's impact," they added. "The same chemicals that attacked the ozone layer are also greenhouse gases. So, phasing them out has made a great contribution to slowing global warming."

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