Antarctic animals are at risk of being ‘sunburnt’ as the ozone hole opens for longer, scientists have warned, and climate change could be to blame. As if the impact of global heating on sea ice weren’t bad enough, penguins, seals and other wildlife are also being exposed to harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation during their summer. Ozone gas forms a protective layer in the Earth’s upper stratosphere. The realisation that some chemicals – primarily chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used as refrigerants – were depleting it led to a major intervention in 1987: the Montreal Protocol. It is widely considered…
