The ozone hole over Antarctica might persist until 2065, which is two decades longer than predicted, because ozone-destroying chemicals are still being released by developed nations more than a decade after their production and importation was banned.
The Montreal Protocol, ratified in 1987, banned the creation of chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons used as coolant by developed nations. It followed the discovery that such chemicals destroyed ozone molecules and thinned the layer of ozone that is about 20 miles above the Earth's surface.
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