Posted on 01/06/2026 6:12:15 AM PST by yesthatjallen
In much-needed good news for the environment, scientists have announced that the 2025 Antarctic ozone hole was relatively small and short-lived, confirming the long-term trend towards the recovery of Earth’s protective shield against the sun.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA said that the ozone hole was the fifth smallest since 1992, the year that the Montreal Protocol, a landmark international agreement to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals began to take effect.
The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) concurred that the 2025 Antarctic ozone hole came to an end on 1 December, marking the earliest closure since 2019. The 2025 ozone hole was also the smallest in five years.
Each year, the ozone hole season – during austral spring – is shaped by temperatures and winds in the stratosphere over the Southern Hemisphere and the presence of human emitted Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS).
During the height of this year’s ozone depletion season from September 7 through October 13, the average extent of the 2025 ozone hole was about 7.23 million square miles (18.71 million square kilometers). That’s about 30% smaller than the largest hole ever observed in 2006. The ozone hole is already breaking up nearly three weeks earlier than average over the past decade, according to NASA and NOAA.
“We are obviously aware that there is year-to-year variability in the ozone hole associated with atmospheric dynamics. But our scientific monitoring confirms our predictions that the ozone layer is well on track to recovery thanks to the Montreal Protocol and its phase out of the vast majority of ozone depleting chemicals which were once used in refrigeration, air conditioning, firefighting foam and even hairspray,” said Paolo Laj, Chief of WMO’s Atmospheric and Environment Research Section.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at wmo.int ...
Back in the 1980s, the ozone hole was expanding and it was 24/7 on the national news that we were destroying the environment and had to act NOW!!!! I remember the scare stories about how it would expand to populated areas and people would be bombarded by radiation from the sun. It worked back then to get the government to impose regulations.
The real cause of the hole was volcanic activity.
And darkness, sulfur dioxide is like miss Pac-Man for ozone, but so is darkness. Ozone is created by integration with sunlight, and is very unstable on its own.
During months of darkness the ozone depletes and then is reconstituted when sun comes back.
As a kid I remember looking at National Geographic and wondering if the hole is caused by chemicals why does it grow and decline seasonally
Got my answer years later, sure the CFC(heavier than air) screamers knew this little fact.
Always follow the money
I remember that. Ozone this, ozone that.
It was a fraud to get rid of freon by the Communists at NASA.
It was always a damned lie. Just like everything else these grifters cook up.
More aerosols STAT! 🤔
Our scientists measured an atmospheric phenomena (at least they think they can measure it) for about 20 years and decided they could not only develop a trend on a 4.5 billion year old planet but even what was affecting the phenomena. That’s pretty impressive.
I have actually predicted the dates on which the latest refrigerant is banned, albeit the pretexts have differed. The shouting starts when DuPont's patents expire. It's been like clockwork. We're seeing the same game with lawsuits and glyphosate, just as we did with a series of pesticides involving DDT and organophosphates. Astra Zeneca really made out with those.
We've been played like stupid fish.
That’s right.
Global Warming was where all this slush fund NGO nonsense began.
Of course we know that. The lies were in order to push Degrowth. Styrofoam barriers are necessary on roads — race proven.
Indeed, follow the money
I had to spend $800 for a new air conditioner in my car when they phased our freon. I later spent $1000 to have the R420 refrigerant replaced in a central AC unit. Dupont likes to have laws passed that increase the price of their product by about 2,000 percent and make the cheaper options illegal.
I remember all that.
HCFCs were banned by the Montreal protocol in 1992. Why 34 years later there is still an ozone hole? Ozone at ground level is considered a dangerous pollutant, but if it is higher up in the atmosphere it becomes magically essential to human life. If protects us from UVB light, but we spend thousands on more expensive refrigerants, instead of ten dollars on sunscreen and a hat The hole over antarctica exposes penguins to the risk of sunburn, or if a person decides to walk around in a bathing suit in Antarctica they have a higher risk of skin cancer.
We sacrificed non flammable refrigerants to the ozone hole gods and replaced them with flammable refrigerants that make your refrigerator a potential bomb for nothing. Ironic that the original Freon was developed to replace flammable and toxic refrigerants to make homes safer.
Yep... the irony is EPA says flammable refrigerants are illegal yet here we are. Back to R-12 I say.
https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/smallest-and-shortest-lived-ozone-hole-5-years-closes
“The 2025 Antarctic ozone hole has come to an end on 1 December, marking the earliest closure since 2019. The 2025 ozone hole was also relatively small for the second consecutive year compared to the large and long-lasting ozone holes from 2020-2023, and had higher ozone concentrations, fueling hopes for recovery.”
I was looking at the Ozone hole pictures and found little that I would claim a trend. And then looked further, and the press release itself says, in my simple words. After 3 bad years we just had 2 good ones. So nothing suggests the hole is closing, any time soon. Just a lot of variability.
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