The Earth's ozone layer is continuing to repair itself, according to scientists.
The Montreal Protocol was agreed back in 1987 with the purpose of safeguarding the ozone layer and aiding it to repair itself. A study was released this week confirming the protocol is working.
Evidence showed that the ozone layer is exhibiting signs of ongoing recovery from man-made damage which is likely to fully heal in 2060.
The measures taken to mend the damage will also have a critical beneficial impact on climate change, as some of the gases that caused the ozone layer to narrow and in places fade also bring about the warming of the atmosphere.
The ozone layer is in charge of protecting Earth from the sun's ultraviolet rays.
Ultraviolet radiation given off by the sun can cause skin cancer, immune system suppression, cataracts, and damage to plants.
Without the ozone layer, survival on this planet would be nearly impossible.
According to the study, published in the science journal "Nature," the recuperating ozone hole may have been a byproduct of the 1987 Montreal Protocol.
This heralds a rare success in the upending of environmental damage and shows that orchestrated action on a global scale can make big changes.
Aside from recovering, the ozone layer is regenerating the circulation of winds all over the planet. This development is associated with tangible measures set store by international cooperation.
All UN-recognized countries signed the Montreal Protocol in 1987, setting in place guidelines to restrain the manufacture and utilization of agents linked with the aggravation of the ozone layer, such as chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs.
Scientists showed through direct satellite monitoring of the ozone hole that levels of ozone-damaging chlorine are decreasing, resulting in a lesser degree of ozone depletion.
The decline in chlorine, brought about by an international ban on CFCs, has prompted around 20 percent less ozone depletion during the Antarctic winter than the depletion in 2005.
The ozone hole was first reported in 1985. According to NASA atmospheric scientist Nathaniel Livesey, today, the planet's ozone hole is in recuperation. The hole on the layer is in the smallest size it has ever been.
The ozone layer hovering over Antarctica has healed to a large degree, that it stopped several alarming changes in the Southern Hemisphere's atmosphere.
The Montreal Protocol is to be thanked as it could be the driving force in pausing or even countering some worrying changes in air currents all over the Southern Hemisphere.
Ozone depletion had been moving the southern jet stream further south than normal. This resulted in varying rainfall patterns and possibly ocean currents as well. A decade or so after the protocol was signed, that migration abruptly halted.
However, according to scientists, redirecting wind flows should not be lauded as a feat yet because of the increasing greenhouse gas emission. It is critical to note that the healing of the ozone layer will have a varied pace in different regions of the world.
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