International Preservation of the Ozone Layer Day marks the day in 1987 when 24 countries signed the Montreal Protocol to reduce emissions damaging to the ozone layer by the year 2000. The ozone layer makes life on Earth possible, because it acts as a filter of the sun’s deadly ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

Simon Armitage (1963 – ) was born in West Yorkshire, England, and is the author of over 20 poetry collections, including Zoom!; Paper Aeroplane; Seeing Stars; The Shout: Selected Poems (2005), which was short-listed for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and The Unaccompanied. He is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds.  In 2019, he was appointed as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom.

To read Simon Armitage’s poem “In Praise of Air” click: