Ozone hole 2003
Ozone hole 2003

'Worst case' scenario of ozone destruction avoided

Embargoed until: Publicly released:

We have avoided a ‘worst-case’ scenario of major environmental and health impacts from ozone depletion and high UV levels thanks in large part to the Montreal Protocol, say Australian, NZ and international researchers. Reviewing the interaction between ozone, climate change and UV, the researchers say as many as 280 million cases of skin cancer have been avoided by the international agreement to limit CFCs. But it's not all good news: ozone-depletion is still affecting climate change in the Southern Hemisphere and impacting a host of plants and animals, including kelp beds and lobsters in Tasmania.

Journal/conference: Nature Sustainability

Link to research (DOI): 10.1038/s41893-019-0314-2

Organisation/s: The Australian National University, University of Wollongong, Murdoch University, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute

Funder: This work has been supported by the UNEP Ozone Secretariat. Additional support was provided by the US Global Change Research Program (P.W.B., C.E.W. and S.M.), the J. H. Mullahy Endowment for Environmental Biology (P.W.B.), the US National Science Foundation (grants DEB 1360066 and DEB 1754276 to C.E.W.), the Australian Research Council (DP180100113 to S.A.R.) and the University of Wollongong’s Global Challenges Program (S.A.R.).

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