The Ozone Hole : In October 1982, at a research station in Antarctica amidst snowstorms, scientist Joseph Farman was taking some measurements. He was measuring the amount of ozone in the Earth’s atmosphere using a machine. Suddenly, the machine gives a very strange reading. According to the machine, the amount of ozone in the atmosphere has decreased by 40% compared to normal.
Joseph was not surprised to see this. He looked at the strange number and thought, how could ozone levels drop 40%? There must be something wrong with the machine. Perhaps, the machine was not working properly. It was considerably old, after all. He thought that had the ozone level really fallen so low, then it would’ve been detected by the thousands of orbiting NASA satellites. So he packed his stuff and went home.
The next year, in October 1983, he returned. This time he brought a new machine with him. And took the measurements again. According to the readings this time, the ozone level had decreased even more compared to last year. He was sure that something was wrong. Such unbelievable reading was not possible. But once again, he thought that if there was a problem, then agencies like NASA would have found it. Yet again, he packed his stuff and went home.
