Why Antarctic wildlife is being ‘sunburnt’
By Victoria Gill
For Antarctic wildlife, exposure to the Sun’s damaging rays has increased in recent years, scientists say.
A hole in the ozone layer – the protective barrier of gas in the upper atmosphere – now lingers over the frozen continent for more of the year.
A major cause of ozone loss is believed to be the amount of smoke from unprecedented Australian wildfires, which were fuelled by climate change.
The study is published in the journal Global Change Biology.
Climate change biologist Prof Sharon Robinson told BBC News: “When I tell people I work on the ozone hole, they go: ‘oh, isn’t that better now?'”
Scientists working in Antarctica discovered the hole in the ozone layer in 1985 – by measuring the amount of solar radiation reaching Earth.
A large group of ozone depleting chemicals were responsible – primarily CFCs or chlorofluorocarbons – that were used as refrigerants. Every country agreed, in 1987, to phase out a group of ozone-depleting chemicals. It was an agreement known as the Montreal Protocol and is considered to be the most successful environmental treaty in history.
