Ozzie Ozone will Teach Children to Protect the Ozone Layer

18 September 2006

On the occasion of the International Day for Protection of Ozone Layer, and under the We Have no Spare Planet, OHO non-governmental organization promoted a picture book and an animated film for children. Ozzie Ozone � Guardian of the Planet aims to educate the children, simply and effectively, on the need to protect the ozone layer.

Ozzie Ozone will teach children to protect the ozone layer

�There can be no life without the ozone layer. The UV radiation will penetrate to the earth surface and will destroy every living being. Therefore, we need to do everything possible to protect it, especially from the deadly Freon, which needs only one of its molecules to destroy 100,000 molecules of ozone. The citizens are encouraged to by only those products that contain no Freon, as their own contribution to the efforts to protect the ozone layer�, said Marin Kocov, Head of the Bureau for Protection of Ozone Layer with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and added that this is the first action of its type in the past ten years.

The picture-book and the cartoon, according to Aleksandra Mladenovska, the We Have no Spare Planet Programme Coordinator, should teach the children at the earliest age to think about the environment and to act when they grow up.

OHO�s project is supported by SDC (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperartion). Romain Darbile, the Head of SDC Macedonian Office, said that their support was earned by the fact that this is a completely original Macedonian project, but also because it deals with a problem that goes well beyond the local boundaries and is a global issue.

The Freon released in the atmosphere will reach the Earth Poles (especially the South Pole) where it destroys the ozone layer and increases the UV radiation. If proper action is taken to protect the ozone layer, it could return to its normal status (which it had, say in 1970s) in 50 to 60 years.

Since 1995, Macedonia managed to reduce its Freon consumption by 97 percent. At the moment, no industry in the country uses Freon in its manufacturing or maintenance processes, and the main task is to reduce retail consumption of Freon based products.