With the world experiencing the greatest recession in nearly 100 years I was thinking when was the last time that I saw or heard anything about ozone depletion.

The news used to be full of stories about studies showing that CFCs (found in aerosol cans, among other things) was harmful to the ozone – a layer in the earth’s atmosphere that protects us from some of the more dangerous Ultra Violet rays of the sun – and has depleted incrementally over the years. There was a great big hole here, a great big hole there but now there doesn’t seem to be a great big hole anywhere that anyone is talking about.

It doesn’t help when a University environmental department in the South of the UK was found to be modifying result of environmental studies to show the effect to be worse than it actually was in order to be able to continue to receive the current funding and to attract future funds.

Corporations and industry lobbied against all studies since the 1980s regarding bigger holes and climate change, claiming that such studies were bogus or ludicrous. In spite of this countries from around the world vowed to reduce CFCs by legislating various clean air acts, and companies began policing themselves, in fear of backlash from the public.

So what has happened in recent years apart from the recession, a world war on Terror and numerous floods, famines and air quakes to divert our attention away from such a critical issue? Surely these holes have not closed and the suns rays will cause irreparable damage?

According to world renowned Environmental Protection Agencies, the ozone layers globally have been reduced by as much as 4% from 1997 to 2005 in certain areas yet have any effects been measured without doubt.
Many of the harmful chemicals have been phased out of usage in the past 10 years as a result of public awareness and the increasing costs of clean up operations. Only recently I saw that computers and other E-waste dumped on the West Coast of Africa had resulted in huge fines for the companies involved.

Technological developments improved and became readily available. After the ban on CFCs in products, companies quickly created products that were CFC-free, from refrigerators and air conditioners to asthma inhalers and office supplies even hairspray and my favorite lynx deodorant is not CFC free.
Reports from NASA a few years ago state that the hole is repairing itself but im not too sure – is it not just variations in weather and atmosphere pressures. If you can find 5 reports to say it is getting worse, you can find 5 reports to say the hole is getting smaller.

If you believe the ozone hole is caused by CFCs and a result of human activity then you can buy eco friendly and ozone friendly items where possible and our green directory is worth both a plug here as a good place to start. You should also look to buy the most energy efficient appliances when yours stop working and need to be replaced. I cant see the point of replacing it before it is broken to make it more environmentally friendly as that is wasteful and creates unnecessary landfill, much better to replace when needed.

Finally. you could also take action by writing to your Member of Parliament to urge them to support the protection of the ozone layer and to consider environmental issues on an ongoing basis even thought there are many competing priorities in the world at the moment.

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Category: World Affairs
Keywords: climate change,ozone,funds,CFC,environment,damage,technology,green,landfill,energy efficient,human,