In a previous post, I explained the ozone healing process. If you haven't read it yet, check it out here. As I explained in the article, action has been taken on an international level for ozone-depleting chemicals to be phased out, and we have seen a considerable decrease in the ozone hole (15%), which means change is occurring. Great! But it has been 30 years since the Montreal Protocol, and some ozone destroying substances are still prevalent.
I was honestly shocked to hear that, in most recent news, China has been identified as the source of at least half of the carbon tetrachloride emissions currently entering the atmosphere annually. Before losing all your faith in the country, and blaming them for all ozone damage ever, know that we don't know yet if it was intentional or accidental. No particular company of China has been identified as an ozone-damager yet.
In a paper published recently in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, an international team of researchers confirms that eastern China is the source of at least half of the 40,000 tonnes of carbon tetrachloride emissions currently entering the atmosphere each year.
They figured this out using a combination of ground-based and airborne atmospheric concentration data from near the Korean peninsula. - via ScienceAlert.
Carbon tetrachloride is just one of the many ODS (Ozone Depleting Substances) that cause the depletion of the ozone layer. Under the Montreal Protocol, these compounds were identified as ozone depleting. Though the Phaseout process introduced by many acts around the world are helping heal the ozone hole, instances like this should only remind us that the fight for a no ozone-hole atmosphere is still going on.
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