1970s Memes

The ozone layer never asked to be part of humanity's chemical experiments. CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) in the 1970s were like that one friend who shows up uninvited and trashes your apartment. These industrial chemicals saw ozone minding its own business in the stratosphere and decided "I'm gonna break that." The shy emoji pointing at itself perfectly captures how CFCs basically volunteered to destroy our planetary sunscreen before scientists realized what was happening. It took a global ban in 1987 to tell these molecules "No, it isn't for you, put that ozone back where it belongs." The stratosphere is still recovering from that toxic relationship.