The world is facing a large scale ecological crisis and if we don’t take matters seriously even now, we may lose many more of the earth’s precious resources. Large scale depletion of the ozone layer due to the unprecedented release of harmful CFC gasses is one of the most important concerns that the global community has to collectively address.
We all know that the ozone layer is an extremely important component of the earth’s atmosphere because it absorbs a great degree of the sun’s ultraviolet rays. The depletion of the earth’s ozone layer due to unprecedented industrial emissions and ecologically insensitive developmental agendas of nations across the world has meant that life on earth is threatened by enhanced cases of skin cancers and various other ecological problems. It is because of a sustained global awareness about the dangers that accompany the depletion of the ozone layer that the United Nations General Assembly designated September 16yh as the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone layer.
It is in this context that China’s attack on the ozone layer becomes of great concern. Industries located in north-eastern China have been releasing large quantities of ozone depleting gasses in violation of an international treaty. In a report carried in a renowned peer-reviewed journal called Nature it has been said that since 2013, China has seen growing annual emissions of banned chemical Chloroflourocarbon-11 (CFC-11) with an increased quantity of over 7,000 tonnes.
It has to be noted that until the 1980s CFCs were widely used in industries and to make a refrigerant and foam insulation. However in 1987, the iconic Montreal Protocol decided to ban the use of CFCs and several other industrial aerosols that were known to have chemically dissolved the protective ozone layer of the earth’s atmosphere.
The protocol led to the decline of the concentration of CFCs globally and successfully was able to control its depletion until about 2012. However, evidences show that perhaps more needs to be done as far as protecting the ozone layer is concerned and while European nations had largely adopted other alternatives, the area that concerned environmentalists more was East Asia.
Over the years, the target of suspicion shifted towards China and showed how CFCs were still widely used despite international bans and other treaties. Scientists throughout the world have begun pointing fingers at China and said that the recent decline in the ozone layer has to do a lot with China’s unrestrained use of chemicals that the larger part of the world’s nations have quit a long time ago.
The report suggests that some 40-60% of the increase in emissions is coming from China. This presents a global concern that may determine the future of the ozone layer for generations to arrive. The suggestions made by the report collectively point to the fact that unless the production of the harmful industrial chemical is purposefully stopped, the world may not be able to save its ozone layer.
