In 1985, a team of scientists discovered a disturbingly large hole in the Earth's ozone layer over Antarctica or the South Pole. Since that time, the degradation of the ozone layer has accelerated dramatically, and the Antarctic hole has grown disturbingly large. Some environmentalists recommend that the Falkland Islands and the southern tip of South America be declared uninhabitable due to the amount of cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation that its residents are exposed to. Scientific expeditions to Antarctica have been officially limited in length for this very reason. However, the southern hemisphere's thinning ozone layer does not endanger very many densely populated areas. The recently-discovered hole in the northern hemisphere's ozone layer is a much more pertinent problem for the residents of northern Canada, Asia, and Russia, plus the nations of Finland, Iceland, and Greenland (Rowlands, 210). .
NASA officials attribute the more recent depletion of the ozone layer to natural meteorological processes, pointing out the fact that, if industrial chemicals are the cause of ozone depletion, the first holes in the layer should have appeared over the Arctic region, or over North America and Europe. The word "hole" is a misnomer; the holes in the Arctic and Antarctic regions are really a significant thinning, or reduction in ozone concentrations, which results in the destruction of up to 70% of the ozone normally found between the ground and space. Below, I will explain the potential causes of the newest hole in the ozone layer, citing responses from environmentalists and scientists, and outline some measures that have been proposed to slow the depletion of the ozone layer, or at least lessen its effect on the Earth's population.
What is the ozone layer?.
Ozone, a mixture of oxygen and carbon monoxide and dioxide, exists in the stratosphere, above the "breathable- atmosphere of the Earth.