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EPIB Trail
Just The Facts: Positive Impacts
Looking to the Future By Marissa Guzik
P
reviously, we took a look back to the start of environmentalism and the formation of the EPA along with some of its foundational acts and benefits brought forth from them. Now let’s take a look at some different, more recent and ongoing environmental successes.
Volume 12, Issue 3
Ozone Hole Recovery The ozone layer is an important part of Earth’s atmosphere that helps to protect and sustain life on and below its surface. It functions as a protective barrier, absorbing harmful ultraviolet B radiation from the sun that can cause “skin cancer and kill phytoplankton, the base of the food chain in the ocean,” (Daley). The ozone layer naturally thins and fluctuates within the stratosphere around the South Pole; this region of depleted ozone is referred to as the ozone hole. However, with the introduction and use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in “refrigerants and as a propellant for things like hairspray” in 1985, the ozone hole grew unnaturally larger from the accumulation of these CFCs in the South Pole where they would breakdown in the warmer months and react with the ozone (Daley). In order to address this problem, a global effort was made in 1987 to establish the Montreal Protocol, which banned the use of “ozonedepleting chemicals,” (Daley). Since then, the ozone hole has been progressively shrinking. Today, these acts to ban CFCs paired with the progressive recovery of the ozone layer is regarded as one of the greatest environmental success stories. “... without the implementation of the protocol, studies suggest that the Earth’s entire ozone layer would have collapsed by 2050, leading to 280 million extra cases of skin cancer as well as a spike in cataracts and other health problems,” (Daley).
