I remember standing up on the first day of class every new school year and say that I dream of becoming a scientist in the future. Yes, I know I am midway a computer engineering college programme and neither have you been click baited. We’re talking about some serious things on the ‘World Ozone Day’. But I wanted to throw some light on where the thought process starts. So first day of a new school year right, I’d say I’m destined to be a scientist (a little dramatic there), and what went through my head as I said that is a scene. A scene of adults walking out from a chopper in a snowy desert. Faces enlightened from landing on one of the poles and equally exhausted from only beginning to bear the cold. Bodies inconceivable, ‘cause they’re covered in layers of clothing topped with yet thicker, quilted freezer suit, adapting to the change in temperatures. Man… I promise I haven’t been there.
Of course, my other notions of scientists were either being trapped in a laboratory and handling all the high-tech equipment or maybe sitting in an office filled with books, two big screens and data that you wouldn’t wanna imagine to fit(physically) in the room, but is being managed on these screens. The latter is to justify how I can still hold onto the dream of at least being called a scientist, data scientists totally make the category you know?
Coming back to the subject matter, my midnight desire to write this little piece is due to the fact that it’s 25 degree Celsius in here, in my room. It rained little spells throughout the day not enough to cool down the atmosphere but kind of make it more humid. The mornings almost seem like summer. If there was a person who had no idea of what season or month or time it is at the moment, although there is practically no such person, he would totally say it’s March or something. The only relief he’d be able to point out are those occasional gusts of cool winds. The point is it seems like we’re living all three seasons, every single day, for these past two months. That is some unstable climate to justify climate change and other environmental issues.
Well I put out a little eBook today called ‘B-15’ which is named after the roll number I had in college for one semester but also after the iceberg B-15. Although there’s not much said about climate change in it except the theme and a few images on a cover, in fact it just has a few dramatic, chill poems from a 20 y/o’s laptop. I literally went like- wait I have no idea of what theme this book is gonna have so let me associate it with the closest thing it could be.
Anyways, B-15 was one of the largest icebergs on the planet. B-15 calved from the Ross ice shelf in Antarctica. And the journey of this iceberg could be representing a significant climate change or a vital evidence of degradation of parts on the planet.
Back to ozone layer again. Speaking hypothetically if were using internet and google at the same rate we are using it now, ozone would have ended up to be at least in the top 20 if not 10 searches each year upto the year 2000. Because obviously we had popstars, iPhones, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and other things to look up. But if environment was the context, ozone was would have ended in the top talks in the 90s. The reason being- in the year 1987 the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was introduced and signed when the rate of use of ozone depleting substances was the highest. CFCs being one of the major substances that messed with the highly reactive ozone molecule(O3). And I derive that from the graph that plots the Use/Emissions of ozone-depleting substances in the world.
The year 2019(when everything actually began falling apart), was the year we’ve seen the maximum shrinking of the ozone hole(after it hit its peak in 1989), as they call it, over Antarctica. And I studied another set of data about change in the ozone hole area resultant from the emission of ozone-depleting substances and guess what, the ozone hole covered the maximum area till date in the year 2000. A little hefty beginning of the century but okay. If you were to ask where I’m going with this, I would like to point to the iceberg B-15, the largest iceberg, began its journey to the end in March 2000. This is the year it broke from the ice shelf and by October of 2005,18th of October to be precise- the largest remaining piece of iceberg B-15 began to crumble. Eventually marking its disappearance from the planet by the end of the decade.
Now iceberg B-15, I believe, has had events in its lifetime which may or may not have been closely influenced by the ozone layer depletion. Because icebergs crack up and they’re bound to break and float around in the sea after some years. The ozone layer has begun to heal or rather the ozone hole has begun shrinking and we’re expecting it to be the least in a few decades. But we’re living in the crises of global warming, it’s like we’ve effortlessly moved on from one issue to the next one.
If we were to compare the graphs for emission of ozone depleting substances and ozone hole area, it is seen how the consequences did not succeed actions in an instant. And I believe that to be true about life too, we’re often given a chance to be better. And that’s my proposition.
We are not using aerosol hairsprays, or freon refrigerators anymore. But that moment has passed. We could easily be representing those upward heading curves in environmental analysis data graphs right now. I think an inspection into our ways of living at a larger- on the planet, is something important to look into. The planet is warmer than ever and that’s the current environmental emergency. Afterall this is the Anthropocene epoch we’re living in, our actions have a great deal of consequences on the functioning or behavior of climate and the planet.
CFCs(Chlorofluorocarbons) have been replaced by HFCs(Hydrofluorocarbons) and that my friends along with greenhouse gases and fossil fuels are the leading contestants to participate in increasing global warming and climate change.
Well no unfortunately I do not have for you, a time frame for the doomsday.
But I realize the consequences of actions and how if the actions are towards a good cause we wouldn’t hinder a better future. Unite to play your part in tackling climate change, and commemorate one of the most successful environmental agreements signed by every single country- the Montreal Protocol which has successfully achieved means to eradicate ozone depleting substances and projected it’s recovery by mid-century.
Here's to ozone day.
Let there be change.
References:
Graphical data analysis image sources: Ozone Layer by Hannah Ritchie, Lucas Rodés-Guirao and Max Roser
‘Why you don’t hear about the ozone layer anymore’ by Vox (please support this brilliance)
Local Lockdowns Brought Fast Global Ozone Reductions, NASA Finds
B-15 iceberg meltdown, starting and end of it via broken pieces from Earth Observatory
Cover Image Artwork: Nature Time Spiral By Pablo Carlos Budassi - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0 licensed via Wikimedia Commons