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Ozone layer is healing – but we are now contributing to climate change more than ever

The Independent reports on an unintended side effect of the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which was implemented to prevent damage to the ozone layer:

Measures put in place since 1987 to protect the ozone layer have had the unintended side effect of exacerbating climate change in certain cases.
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The Earth’s protective ozone layer is slowly recovering, United Nations scientists report, but the unintended knock-on effect is increasing climate change.

Successful implementation of the 1987 Montreal Protocol, aimed at reducing Ozone Depleting Substances (ODSs) including many chemicals used in aerosol cans and refrigerators, mean the ozone layer is expected to recover to 1980 levels by the middle of this century.

However, certain chemicals used as substitutes for harmful man-made CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) are potent global warming gases, contributing emissions growing at a rate of about seven per cent annually, and can be expected to “very significantly” affect climate change.

To read more about the changing world and what you can do to prepare, visit: www.newmessage.org

Jim Brennan: