Record 40% decline in Arctic ozone hole

THE protective ozone layer in the Arctic that keeps out the sun’s most damaging rays — ultraviolet radiation — has thinned about 40% this winter, a record drop, the UN weather agency has said.

It comes as scientists monitor a massive pool of fresh water in the Arctic Ocean that could spill into the Atlantic and potentially alter the ocean currents that bring Western Europe its moderate climate.

The Arctic’s damaged stratospheric ozone layer isn’t the best known “ozone hole” — that would be Antarctica’s, which forms when sunlight returns in spring there each year. But the Arctic’s situation is due to similar causes: ozone-munching compounds in air pollutants that are chemically triggered by a combination of extremely cold temperatures and sunlight.