NEWS POST: Hole In Ozone Layer Now Size Of Russia & Canada Combined – UN

© 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

Reuters / NASA / Reuters

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