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The ozone layer is finally beginning to heal from all the damage caused by aerosol sprays and other man-made chemicals, a new United Nations report has revealed.
The protective shield in Earth’s atmosphere had been thinning out before scientists raised the alarm about the impact of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the 1980s.
As a result of bans introduced by global governments, the upper ozone layer above the Northern Hemisphere should be completely restored in the 2030s.
A gaping hole in the ozone over the Antarctic won’t disappear until later – sometime in the 2060s, according to a scientific assessment released on Monday at a conference in Quito, Ecuador.
The ozone layer in the Southern Hemisphere should be repaired by mid-century.
“It’s really good news,” said report co-chairman Paul Newman, chief Earth scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
“If ozone-depleting substances had continued to increase, we would have seen huge effects. We stopped that.”
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Reuters/AP
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A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males
Getty
2/18 Final warning to limit “climate catastrophe”
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase
Getty
3/18 Nobel prize for evolution chemists
The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies
Getty/AFP
4/18 Nobel prize for laser physicists
The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his “optical tweezers” which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gérard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers
Reuters/AP
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The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means “a giant thunderclap at dawn”
Viktor Radermacher / SWNS
6/18 Birth of a planet
Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever.
This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star.
ESO/A. Müller et al
7/18 New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists
Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the “interstitium”.
These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins
Getty
8/18 Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists
Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest.
These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs
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9/18 One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds
More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test.
Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly.
Getty
10/18 Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter’s great red spot
The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image’s colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth.
Pictures by: Tom Momary
11/18 A 3D reconstruction of an African grey parrot post euthanasia
Included in Wellcome Image Awards, this 3D image of an African grey parrot shows the highly intricate system of blood vessels.
Scott Birch. Wellcome Images
12/18 Baby Hawaiian bobtail squid
Another Wellcome Images Award winner, this time of baby Hawaiian bobtail squid. The black ink sac and light organ in the centre of the squid’s mantle cavity can be clearly seen.
Macroscopic Solutions. Wellcome Images
13/18 Skeletons of 5,000-year-old Chinese ‘giants’ discovered by archaeologists
The people are thought to have been unusually tall and strong. The tallest of the skeletons uncovered measured at 1.9m
YouTube
14/18 Nasa discovers 75,000 mile-wide hole in the Sun
Sunspots are caused by interactions with the Sun’s magnetic field and are cooler areas on the star’s surface.
Nasa
15/18 View(active tab) Apple News Breaking news email Edit Revisions Workflow Clear Cache NewsScience 132 million-year-old dinosaur fossil found at factory in Surrey
Paleontologists Sarah Moore and Jamie Jordan believe they have discovered a Iguanodon dinosaur, a herbivore that was around three metres tall and 10 metres long
Cambridge Photographers/Wienerberger
16/18 Discovering life on Mars is less likely as researchers find toxic chemicals on its surface
The Echus Chasma, one of the largest water source regions on Mars
Getty Images
17/18 The Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest in the United States and third largest in the world, is seen in Yellowstone National Park.
The park is famous for its geothermal activity – which includes its spectacular, flowing springs as well as the famous “Old Faithful” geyser that sprays water out every hour or so.
REUTERS/Jim Urquhart
18/18 An iris clip fitted onto the eye
This images is apart of the Wellcome Images Awards and shows how an artificial intraocular lens is fitted onto the eye. Used for conditions such as myopia and cataracts.
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS FT. Wellcome Images
The ozone layer starts around six miles above the Earth and protects the planet from the Sun’s cancer-causing ultraviolet rays.
Use of CFCs in aerosol sprays and refrigerator coolants began eating away at the ozone in the 1970s.
But in 1987, countries around the world agreed in the Montreal Protocol to phase out CFCs and businesses came up with replacements for spray cans and other forms of the harmful chemicals.
At its worst in the late 1990s, about 10 per cent of the upper ozone layer was depleted.
“Evidence presented by the authors shows that the ozone layer in parts of the stratosphere has recovered at a rate of 1 to 3 percent per decade since 2000,” said the UN Environment and the World Meteorological Organization.
If nothing had been done to stop the thinning, the world would have destroyed two-thirds of its ozone layer by 2065, said Mr Newman.
However, the University of Colorado’s Brian Toon, a climate scientist who was not part of the UN report, urged caution.
“We are only at a point where recovery may have started,” said Mr Toon.
One potential problem is that new technology has found an increase in emissions of a particular kind of banned CFC in east Asia, the report noted.
And replacements now being used to cool cars and refrigerators need to be replaced themselves with chemicals that don’t make global warming worse, Mr Newman said.
An amendment to the Montreal Protocol that goes into effect next year would cut the use of some of those gases.
“I don’t think we can do a victory lap until 2060,” Newman said. “That will be for our grandchildren to do.”
Additional reporting by agencies
