World Ozone Day 2014: Progress, But The Mission Has Not Yet Been Accomplished

The layer of gas that protects us and all life on Earth from the Sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation may be on
the road to recovery, but as the world commemorates World Ozone Day on Tuesday, officials emphasize there is still much work to be done.
Starting in 1994, the UN Assembly proclaimed that September 16 would be the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer (or, alternatively, World Ozone Day). The date was chosen because it was on September 16, 1987 that the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was signed into effect.
According to the UN, the theme for this year’s World Ozone Day is “Ozone Layer Protection: The Mission Goes On,” since even though the Montreal Protocol has been somewhat successful to this point, the organization emphasized that there are “some remaining challenges” to overcome.
Earlier this month, scientists from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) revealed in a new report that the ozone layer in the stratosphere was starting to thicken, and the whole that appears annually over Antarctica has finally stopped growing larger.
The UNEP and WMO explained it would take decades before the hole begins to shrink. Without the Montreal Protocol and the “concerted international action against ozone depleting substances” it has encouraged, they said, the atmospheric levels of ozone-depleting substances might have increased tenfold by 2050.
“There are positive indications that the ozone layer is on track to recovery towards the middle of the century”, UN Undersecretary General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said, according to Lydia Smith of International Business Times. “The challenges that we face are still huge. The success of the Montreal Protocol should encourage further action not only on the protection and recovery of the ozone layer but also on climate.”

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