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| © NASA / Reuters |
The
hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica has reached record-breaking levels, and
currently covers an area four times the size of Australia, UN scientists have
said. In addition to the global threat to humanity, it poses another, quite
real risk to Australia: extra UV radiation and sunburn on the continent where
over 45,000 people are expected to die from skin cancer in 2015.
This
year, the hole reached 28.2 million square kilometers: four times the size of
Australia or the size of Russia and Canada combined.
Researchers
confirmed that the hole measured on October 2 is one of the biggest known to
date.
“This
year it is certainly quite large and for this time of year it is one of the
largest on record,” Paul Krummel, of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organisation (CSIRO)’s, said.
In
2015, the stratosphere has seen colder than usual temperatures.
"What
really determines the size of the ozone hole each year is really the
meteorological conditions and this year it is extremely cold over the Antarctic
and by this time of year normally warm air is starting to egress into that area
and this hasn't happened yet," he said.
The
hole in fact fluctuates greatly when it emerges every year, according to
researchers.
"Each
springtime over the last now nearly 35 years, there's been a depletion of
stratospheric ozone over Antarctica primarily due to two really important
factors," he said, adding, "It's the increase in ozone-depleting
chemicals in the atmosphere and very special cold conditions that occur in
winter and spring over Antarctica which provide a special catalytic ozone
destruction vessel that allows the ozone to be rapidly deployed by the higher
concentrations of chlorofluorocarbons — ozone-depleting chemicals that have
occurred in the stratosphere due to human activity."
CSIRO’s
Krummel also noted that there should be no long-term concern. However, there
are risks for Australians.
"Once
the ozone hole does start to break up, air that's depleted in ozone may be
transported over to the southern parts of Australia which can, of course,
during those periods increase the amount of UV radiation," Krummel said.
"So there could be a
tendency for a bit more sunburn. I would say mostly the southern states is
where it is likely to impact,” he added.
Earth Is
Halfway To Being Inhospitable To Life, Scientist Says
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Reuters /
NASA / Reuters
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A
Swedish scientist claims in a new theory that humanity has exceeded four of the
nine limits for keeping the planet hospitable to modern life, while another
professor said Earth may be seeing an impending human-made extinction of
various species.
Environmental
science professor Johan Rockstrom, the executive director of the Stockholm
Resilience Centre in Sweden, argues that there are nine “planetary boundaries”
in a new paper published in Science – and human beings have already crossed
four of them.
Those
nine include carbon dioxide concentrations, maintaining biodiversity at 90
percent, the use of nitrogen and phosphorous, maintaining 75 percent of
original forests, aerosol emissions, stratospheric ozone depletion, ocean
acidification, fresh water use and the dumping of pollutants.
“The
planet has been our best friend by buffering our actions and showing its
resilience,” said Rockstrom. “But for the first time ever, we might shift the
planet from friend to foe.”
Rockstrom’s
planetary boundary theory was first conceived in 2007. His new paper reveals
that because of climate stability, which began when the Ice Age ended 11,000
years ago, a planetary calm helped our ancestors to cultivate wheat,
domesticate animals, and launch industrial and communications revolutions. But
those advances have strained the stability of the planet, and Rockstrom says we
have broken four boundaries: too much nitrogen has been added to ecosystems,
too many forests have been cut down, the climate is changing too quickly and
species are going extinct at too great a rate.
Speaking
to RT’s Ben Swann, Professor of Ethics Bron Taylor from the University of
Florida said that we have accelerated the extinction crisis through
deforestation and ocean acidification, a development which is driving species
to extinction.
“[Human]
beings have increased, even from 1925, from 2 billion – which is considered to
be a sustainable population for human beings, according to northern European
consumption standards – to 7.2 billion at this point,” he said.
“What
we have also done is increased the number of domestic animals, the ones we eat
and the ones that are companion animals. We have 4.3 domestic animals one for
every two human beings on the planet. Cultivating the land they need creates
species extinction because where they are, other organism are not. Where we cut
down forests for cattle, other species are not there."
“We
are losing literally tens of thousands of endemic or native species to these
trends.”
Professor
Taylor told RT that scientists say we entering the Sixth extinction, but that
this an anthropogenic extinction caused by human beings.
“If
you don’t have control over something, there is no moral obligation,” said
Taylor. “In this case, we are doing it. So we have to ask the question: If we
are doing something that is driving species off the planet, are we in some
sense morally culpable?”
“What
right do we have to drive [out] other species, who got here in precisely in the
same way that we have, who have participated in the long struggle for existence
just as we have?”
Meanwhile,
Professor Rockstrom is using his planetary boundary theory not as a doomsday
message but as analysis to keep the planet “safe” for humanity. He said nations
can cut their carbon emissions to almost nothing and pull the Earth back across
the climate boundary.
“For the first time,” he
said, “we have a framework for growth, for eradicating poverty and hunger, and
for improving health.”
Originally published in RT USA
