What would happen if the Earth had no ozone layer? The result of the simulation surprises

Scientists ran a simulation to determine what would happen if we lost the ozone layer. The effect would be unexpected. The Earth’s temperature would drop by as much as 3.5 degrees Celsius.

Ozone Hole from 2015 — [Photo: NASA Earth Observatory, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons]

What does the average temperature on Earth depend on? In the simplest terms, it is determined by the sun, which warms our planet. However, the devil is in the details.

What does the average temperature on Earth depend on?

Solar radiation is partially reflected by the upper layers of the atmosphere. Part of the radiation penetrates it and is absorbed by the air and the Earth’s surface. In turn, part of the radiation falling on the surface of the globe is reflected and escapes back into space. The atmosphere, in which the amount of greenhouse gases is increasing, increasingly effectively traps this heat, not allowing it to escape into space. As a result, the Earth’s average temperature is rising — like a pot covered with a lid.

The ozone layer does not appear in this description. And yet it is of considerable importance not only for human health, but also for the climate. The science preprint site arXiv.org featured the work of two researchers who looked at what would happen if the Earth were…