Since the time of those first reports, concern has grown. This introduction to the ozone problem gives an overview of the situation and its consequences. The article, from 1995, says that

. . .the international scientific community has clearly established that humankind's widespread use of ozone depleting chemicals has wrought severe damage on the ozone layer. Recently, the World Meteorological Organization reported that the ozone hole over the Antarctic is growing at a record pace and is twice the size of the hole that was observed at the same time last year. At this rate, the 1995 ozone hole will be one of the most severe on record, greater than the 1994 ozone hole which encompassed the size of the North American continent.

It seems that we are in a bad situation. In this project, you will examine the situation more closely. In the previous chapter project, you explored the global warming situation: though the data you will examine in this project is different, it is helpful to see the connection between the two phenomena. To find out more, review the relationship between the ozone hole and global warming.

Sometimes a picture can bring an immediacy to data that is impossible to get from tables of numbers. To see such a picture of what is happening in our atmosphere, view this Ozone hole movie (an animation). The orange colored zones are rich in ozone, the green zones less so, and the blue zones poor in ozone. During the animation, the black circle that blots out the Antarctic continent eventually disappears--it represents our blind spot (the part of earth that doesn't receive sun). The blind spot gradually disappears as the season changes: recall that springtime in Anarctica comes in September.

From this movie, you can see that ozone seems to be on the decline. Of course, it is not only the continent of Antarctica that is affected: ozone is decreasing at all latitudes (except possibly in the tropics).

For more information on the Ozone Hole, refer to this Report on the situation, from the United Nations