After decades of damage, ozone layer to heal by 2066

By Griffin Doeff ’25

The ozone layer is healing.

In January 2023, the United Nations Environment Programme reported that the ozone layer is currently on track to recovery and is predicted to globally heal by 2066 – something attributed to intensive global initiatives intended to prohibit the emission of harmful chemicals such as CFCs.

Biology teacher Jack Reardon commented, “This is a really great development,” noting that the ozone protects from environmental damage and skin cancer risk.

Interestingly, some students ostensibly seem unaware of this newfound information.

A small poll of 25 students held in May across two frosh-soph biology classes found that only 25 percent of students believed the ozone layer was in a healthy state, with the majority believing it to be in a “bad” or “very bad” state.

AP Environmental Science teacher Michael O’Brien attributes this to two causes: 1. residual concerns from the initial campaign to save the ozone in the

70s and 80s, and 2. the Information Age allows for wider access to viscerally worrying statistics and data. But he clarified this wasn’t the result of hysteria – rather, it was the result of aggressive awareness campaigns from when