Hey, good news! The ozone layer, which was getting thinner back in 1980, may be back, thick as ever, by the middle of the century, if we should live so long.
So get this: we’re not irretrievably doomed to annihilate ourselves. We can earn a reprieve through good behavior. At least, that’s what climate scientists claim.
Apparently, the protective layer stopped vanishing in 1997, due in large part to the human race’s surprising compliance with the 1987 international agreement, known as the Montreal Protocol, to limit emissions of ozone-gobbling chemicals.
Eun-Su Yang of the Georgia Institute of Technology, who led a team that analyzed the data, reported, "These results confirm the Montreal Protocol and its amendments have succeeded in stopping the loss of ozone in the stratosphere. At the current recovery rate ... the global ozone layer could be restored to 1980 levels.”
And researchers from NASA confirmed the laudatory finding, saying the ozone hole over Antarctica would recover by around 2068. While that date is about 20 years later had been expected, at least there’s a date.
Now, if we can fix the hole in the ozone layer, what can’t we accomplish with the disarmingly simple idea of good behavior?
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Tom Attea, humorist and creator of NewsLaugh.com, has had six shows produced Off-Broadway. Critics have called his writing "delightfully funny," "witty," with "great humor and ebullience" and "good, genuine laughs."
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