Without the ozone layer, there would be no life on Earth. The stratospheric layer of gas absorbs the most damaging ultraviolet (UV) rays and protects living things from being killed by the power of the Sun. Unfortunately, Earth’s has a major weakness.
Back in the 1980s, while measuring the amount of solar radiation reaching the planet, scientists in Antarctica discovered a hole in Earth’s ozone. The cause: human-made chemicals were mixing with ozone molecules and destroying them.
The group of chemicals responsible were primarily chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. They had alarge number of industrial uses, predominantly as refrigerants.