How We Broke the Ozone Layer and Started Fixing It

We damaged Earth’s protective ozone layer. Then the world acted to help it recover. Watch 150 years of ozone history unfold, from an illustrative 1950 baseline through satellite observations and a projected future to 2100. Discover how CFCs fuelled ozone destruction, why Antarctica was hit hardest, and how the Montreal Protocol helped change the trajectory. Recovery takes decades, and weather can make the hole shrink or grow dramatically from one year to the next. The historical animation uses NASA ozone maps from 24 September, 1979–2025, comparing the same date across available years. We smoothly interpolated between maps and estimated missing areas, including the 1995 gap, to avoid distracting visual artifacts. The colors represent ozone concentration. Purple shows severe thinning, not a physical opening in Earth. The atmospheric glow and layer thickness are illustrative. Before 1979 and after 2025, the visuals are illustrative—not satellite observations. The future sequence draws on published recovery assessments, rather than a new atmospheric model. Recovery dates are approximate and depend on continued controls on ozone-depleting substances. Sources and credits: NASA Ozone Watch - maps and observations https://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ NASA - annual ozone-hole statistics https://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/statistics/annual_data.html NOAA - Ozone Depleting Gas Index https://gml.noaa.gov/odgi/ UNEP - Montreal Protocol https://ozone.unep.org/treaties/montreal-protocol WMO/UNEP - Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion, 2022 https://csl.noaa.gov/assessments/ozone/2022/executivesummary/ British Antarctic Survey - discovery of the ozone hole https://www.bas.ac.uk/about/history/ozone-hole-discovery/ ------- For more astronomy, space exploration, and science content, check out our parent channel, ‪@Cosmoknowledge‬.