the early 80s were a very different time
crazy hair crazy clothes we didn't know
we were headed towards a planet-wide
disaster oh yeah that's right we were
headed towards a planet-wide disaster
and if nothing had been done about it
this is what the world would have become
in 2065 crops failing livestock farming
failing aquaculture failing and cancer
rates through the roof
step outdoors in Washington DC and
you'll get a severe sunburn in five
minutes
lucky for us NASA had our backs
NASA might be famous for exploring space
but that's not its only job the agency
studies earth too they help track how
our environment works and catch if
something goes wrong and in 1985 things
indeed had gone terribly wrong teams of
scientists from NASA and the British
Antarctic Survey discovered a severely
damaged section of Earth's ozone layer
over Antarctica here's why that's a
problem the ozone layer is a region in
the stratosphere that absorbs harmful UV
light from the Sun it's basically our
planet's natural sunscreen and it had
grown extremely thin over Antarctica so
the ozone hole as it became known was
absorbing less UV light than normal in
fact from September through November of
that year the ozone levels in the hole
dropped by up to 67% that's like if you
only used 1/3 of the sunscreen you were
supposed to before going to the beach
thankfully NASA had a pretty good idea
of what was happening four years prior
scientists had been sounding the alarm
on chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons
or CFCs for short they were common in
products like aerosol sprays and
refrigerators and were chosen
specifically because they were non-toxic
to humans but scientists soon discovered
that that just didn't matter because
these molecules were extremely toxic to
the ozone layer turns out when UV light
hits a CFC molecule it releases a
chlorine atom which basically goes on a
killing spree to celebrate turning ozone
molecules into oxygen which are
basically worthless when it comes to
protecting your planet from UV radiation
one chlorine atom for instance can
destroy over 100,000 ozone molecules
before it finally binds with another
molecule and becomes
and the worst part is that chlorine
atoms are especially destructive to the
ozone in cold temperatures you know what
else is called Antarctica but if CFCs
continued to go on unchecked cold
regions wouldn't be the only casualty by
2020 17% would be gone worldwide and a
similar ozone hole would form over the
Arctic by 2040 70% would be gone by 2050
after the poles the tropics begin to
lose their ozone layer completely and by
2060 five were doomed UV radiation
levels on Earth's surface double which
sparks all sorts of problems if that
that UV we're coming all the way to the
surface we would get skin cancer we
would have cataracts on our eyes animals
would get cataracts our crops would die
so life on Earth as we know it and life
for humans really wouldn't be possible
it sounds like some kind of a horrible
Hollywood disaster movie I think that
yeah we would have been in for us I mean
it sounds very extreme apocalyptic
consequences but really we might have
been obviously none of that happened
that's because scientists across the
world banded together the Montreal
Protocol was signed in 1987 lowering
production of harmful CFCs the
policymakers listen to science they were
informed by science and they made a
great decision they said we don't we
care we're gonna we're gonna try to come
up with a treaty that that solves these
problems and it worked by 1996 CFCs were
banned completely in developed countries
now there are signs that the ozone is
recovering and could be completely
healed by the end of the century so it
looks like the world won't crumble by
2065 anymore
well at least not from a depleted ozone
layer