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The giant hole in the ozone layer is shrinking -- and will be effectively extinct by the end of the century.

Nasa reports in a new study that the ozone holes, which were once arguably the highest profile environmental issue around, will be smaller than 8 million square miles within the next three decades. The evidence now suggests that the hole -- currently 12 million square miles -- will be fully recovered by the end of the 21st century.


Latterly in the Earth's history the hole has formed over the southern pole in winter months, caused by collected streams of damaging chemicals. But since the Montreal Protocol agreement in 1987, the emissions of these chemicals have been in decline, as ozone-friendly alternative chemicals have come into common usage.

Exactly what impact this regulation had on the size of the hole was not clear until now, largely because it also fluctuates as a result of temperature and other variables. But Nasa used new data gained via its AURA satellite to gather more detail about long-term trends, and now believes the end is in sight. The Goddard Space Flight Centre said in its new report that the holes are consistently shrinking, and should be essentially solved as a major concern by 2040.

. "But really the main point about its discovery was that it shows how incredibly rapidly we can produce major changes to our atmosphere and how long it takes for nature to recover from them."

To this point, many other very large-scale climate change issues still remain unsolved -- and so far there are no signs that a single summit or protocol can do anything major to reverse them.