Scientists say the ozone layer is slowly recovering

(Image credit: Twitter.com/NZHerald)

last updated 8 January 2015

You can call it a comeback: The ozone layer is slowly recovering, scientists say, with a significant increase in stratospheric ozone, which protects the planet from solar radiation.

A United Nations scientific panel found that between 2000 and 2013, ozone levels went up 4 percent in mid-northern latitudes at 30 miles up. In the 1980s, scientists issued a dire warning about CFCs, man-made chemicals found in aerosol cans and refrigerants that released chlorine and bromine into the air, destroying ozone. In 1987, countries agreed to a treaty that phased CFCs out. "It's a victory for diplomacy and for science and for the fact that we were able to work together," Mario Molina, a chemist who co-wrote a 1974 study forecasting ozone depletion, told The Associated Press.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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