The Ozone Hole Is Finally Shrinking, But We've Reached A Terrifying CO2 Milestone

The Ozone Hole Is Healing Itself, But There's Bad News

Do you want the good news or the bad news?

The good news is that the ozone hole above Antarctica is shrinking, with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center reports that current readings show the hole to be significantly smaller than it was in the 1960s.

In even better news, NASA believes that this trend is going to continue, with the ozone hole continuing to shrink. At present, the ozone hole is around 12 million square miles.

NASA believes that at its current rate, the hole will shrink to just 8 million square miles in around three decades. If you take this continuing trend and roll with it then the ozone hole will have completely disappeared by the end of the 21st century.

Now for the bad news: We've hurtled past the global expectations for CO2 emissions. The Earth now has airborne CO2 levels above 400 parts per million, a figure that's 50ppm above what scientists believe is 'safe' and two full years ahead of schedule.

The most concerning thing is that while the UN predicted we would surpass this level, it actually thought we'd take longer to reach it.

So how do we combat it? Well it's actually quite simple, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has advised that we cut our fossil fuel emissions by 80 per cent, immediately.

While that might sound easier said than done, the UN actually believes switching over to renewable energy on a global scale wouldn't be anywhere near as expensive as governments believe.

The global switch would reportedly cost the planet just 0.06 per cent of the global GDP.

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