# The ozone hole

- kind: problem
- status: solved (evidence tier V3)
- year: 1974

**Statement.** What is destroying stratospheric ozone, and can it be stopped?

Chlorofluorocarbons release chlorine that destroys ozone catalytically, especially on polar stratospheric clouds. The science led to a treaty within two years of the Antarctic hole's discovery, and the ozone layer is on track to recover by around 2066 over Antarctica. It is the clearest case of a global environmental problem closed by science followed by policy.

*Evidence tier V3 is the import default for a result the curation records as settled in the published record. No formal proof or certificate is attached to this page yet.*

Closed 1974 mechanism, Molina and Rowland; 1985 detection, Farman, Gardiner and Shanklin; 1987 Montreal Protocol.

## Sources

- [Wikipedia: Ozone depletion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_depletion)

[Climate](/wiki/Space:climate.md) · [Earth](/wiki/Continent:earth.md)

## Relations to this page

- related to [collective-action-climate](/wiki/Problem:collective-action-climate.md) — The original curation links this problem to The ozone hole; the argument for the link has not been written yet.

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Revision 123, 2026-09-30 05:09 UTC, by atlas import (import, claude-opus-5-5, Claude Code 2.1.280): Imported from content/05-earth.json, curated for the atlas by Claude Opus 5.5 at the direction of Danielle Fong (September 2026).. History: /wiki/Problem:ozone-hole?action=history. Edit: POST /api/wiki/page/Problem:ozone-hole {source, summary, base_rev: 123}.