Ozone layer showing 'signs of recovery', UN says
Roger Harrabin
By Roger Harrabin
BBC environment analyst

(BBC) -- The ozone layer that shields the earth from cancer-causing ultraviolet rays is showing early signs of thickening after years of depletion, a UN study says.

The ozone hole that appears annually over Antarctica has also stopped growing bigger every year.

The report says it will take a decade before the hole starts to shrink.

Scientists say the recovery is entirely due to political determination to phase out the man-made CFC gases destroying ozone.

The study was published by researchers from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

"International action on the ozone layer is a major environmental success story... This should encourage us to display the same level of urgency and unity to tackle the even greater challenge of tackling climate change," said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.

Dr Ken Jucks from the US space agency Nasa told BBC News that humans "have started to do the right thing in order to convert the atmosphere back towards what it was before the industrial revolution started".

Full story: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29152028


-- BBC 2014-09-11

If true, this is great news.

Having had two melanomas removed and continually having to have BCC's also frozen off, this is good news.

Funny, I was staying down in a south Cha Am resort in November last year and started talking to a few European bar patrons who had previously come in from frying themselves in the sun on a patch of manicured lawn on the beach. I asked them if they weren't afraid of skin cancer, the answer, "the sun isn't as strong here as in the southern latitudes". Say what ?

I was telling my dermatologist of seeing multitudes of pale Europeans sun-baking in Thailand, something you didn't see years ago. He was told me that now that Central and Eastern Europeans having increased available money for travel the dermatology journals are reporting increasing numbers of melanomas in those populations. Draw your own conclusions.

"Scientists say the recovery is entirely due to political determination to phase out the man-made CFC gases destroying ozone."

Of course I would expect the liberal scientist to say that!

1 year in Thailand i had a nice tan, 3 months back in Melbourne skin damage appears on my face, every year for the last 9 bar the one i spent in Thailand i needed treatment to get rid of sun damage to my face.

Yes its good news.

"Scientists say the recovery is entirely due to political determination to phase out the man-made CFC gases destroying ozone."

Of course I would expect the liberal scientist to say that!

Sure. The scientists whose whole careers have been built on the back of the "Climate Change" industry, and from which they will derive all funding for their future careers.

The cause of the ozone hole was never totally understood, except that it was most likely a recurring event throughout history.

Maybe we don't rush to a "politically convenient" explanation for it's current reducing phase.

That's not to say that any reduction in the use of polluting chemicals is anything but good.