Ozone hole continues shrinking in 2022, says NASA.

• The annual Antarctic ozone hole reached an average area of 23.2 million square kilometres between September 7 and October 13, 2022.
• The America’s space agency, NASA said that the depleted area of the ozone layer over the South Pole was slightly smaller than last year and generally continued the overall shrinking trend of recent years.
• “Over time, steady progress is being made, and the hole is getting smaller,” said Paul Newman, chief scientist for Earth sciences at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He said the elimination of ozone-depleting substances through the Montreal Protocol is shrinking the hole.
• The ozone layer – the portion of the stratosphere that protects our planet from the Sun’s ultraviolet rays – thins to form an ozone hole above the South Pole every September.

The Montreal Protocol

• The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is the landmark multilateral environmental agreement that regulates the production and consumption of nearly 100 man-made chemicals referred to as ozone depleting substances (ODS).
• When released to the atmosphere, those chemicals damage the stratospheric ozone layer, Earth’s protective shield that protects humans and the environment from harmful levels of ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
• Adopted on 16 September 1987, the Protocol is to date the only UN treaty ever that has been ratified every country on Earth – all 198 UN Member States.