UN Says Ozone Layer Slowly Healing, Hole to Mend by 2066 

This file image released on December 1, 2009, shows a combination of two images released by the NASA Earth Observatory showing the size and shape of the ozone hole each year in 1979 (L) and in 2009. (Handout / NASA / AFP)
This file image released on December 1, 2009, shows a combination of two images released by the NASA Earth Observatory showing the size and shape of the ozone hole each year in 1979 (L) and in 2009. (Handout / NASA / AFP)
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UN Says Ozone Layer Slowly Healing, Hole to Mend by 2066 

This file image released on December 1, 2009, shows a combination of two images released by the NASA Earth Observatory showing the size and shape of the ozone hole each year in 1979 (L) and in 2009. (Handout / NASA / AFP)
This file image released on December 1, 2009, shows a combination of two images released by the NASA Earth Observatory showing the size and shape of the ozone hole each year in 1979 (L) and in 2009. (Handout / NASA / AFP)

Earth’s protective ozone layer is slowly but noticeably healing at a pace that would fully mend the hole over Antarctica in about 43 years, a new United Nations report says. 

A once-every-four-years scientific assessment found recovery in progress, more than 35 years after every nation in the world agreed to stop producing chemicals that chomp on the layer of ozone in Earth’s atmosphere that shields the planet from harmful radiation linked to skin cancer, cataracts and crop damage. 

“In the upper stratosphere and in the ozone hole we see things getting better," said Paul Newman, co-chair of the scientific assessment. 

The progress is slow, according to the report presented Monday at the American Meteorological Society convention in Denver. The global average amount of ozone 18 miles (30 kilometers) high in the atmosphere won’t be back to 1980 pre-thinning levels until about 2040, the report said. And it won’t be back to normal in the Arctic until 2045. 

Antarctica, where it’s so thin there’s an annual giant gaping hole in the layer, won't be fully fixed until 2066, the report said. 

Scientists and environmental advocates across the world have long hailed the efforts to heal the ozone hole — springing out of a 1987 agreement called the Montreal Protocol that banned a class of chemicals often used in refrigerants and aerosols — as one of the biggest ecological victories for humanity. 

“Ozone action sets a precedent for climate action. Our success in phasing out ozone-eating chemicals shows us what can and must be done – as a matter of urgency — to transition away from fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gases and so limit temperature increase,” World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas said in a statement. 

Signs of healing were reported four years ago but were slight and more preliminary. “Those numbers of recovery have solidified a lot,” Newman said. 

The two chief chemicals that munch away at ozone are in lower levels in the atmosphere, said Newman, chief Earth scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Chlorine levels are down 11.5% since they peaked in 1993 and bromine, which is more efficient at eating ozone but is at lower levels in the air, dropped 14.5% since its 1999 peak, the report said. 

That bromine and chlorine levels “stopped growing and is coming down is a real testament to the effectiveness of the Montreal Protocol,” Newman said. 

“There has been a sea change in the way our society deals with ozone depleting substances,” said scientific panel co-chair David W. Fahey, director of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s chemical sciences lab. 

Decades ago, people could go into a store and buy a can of refrigerants that eat away at the ozone, punch a hole in it and pollute the atmosphere, Fahey said. Now, not only are the substances banned but they are no longer much in people’s homes or cars, replaced by cleaner chemicals. 

Natural weather patterns in the Antarctic also affect ozone hole levels, which peak in the fall. And the past couple years, the holes have been a bit bigger because of that but the overall trend is one of healing, Newman said. 

This is “saving 2 million people every year from skin cancer,” United Nations Environment Program Director Inger Andersen told The Associated Press earlier this year in an email. 

A few years ago, emissions of one of the banned chemicals, chlorofluorocarbon-11 (CFC-11), stopped shrinking and was rising. Rogue emissions were spotted in part of China but now have gone back down to where they are expected, Newman said. 

A third generation of those chemicals, called HFC, was banned a few years ago not because it would eat at the ozone layer but because it is a heat-trapping greenhouse gas. The new report says that the ban would avoid 0.5 to 0.9 degrees (0.3 to 0.5 degrees Celsius) of additional warming. 

The report also warned that efforts to artificially cool the planet by putting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect the sunlight would thin the ozone layer by as much as 20% in Antarctica. 



Surging Travel in Europe Spikes Concerns over Tourism's Drawbacks

FILE - Demonstrators march in downtown Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, June 19, 2024, as residents protest mass tourism. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)
FILE - Demonstrators march in downtown Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, June 19, 2024, as residents protest mass tourism. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)
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Surging Travel in Europe Spikes Concerns over Tourism's Drawbacks

FILE - Demonstrators march in downtown Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, June 19, 2024, as residents protest mass tourism. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)
FILE - Demonstrators march in downtown Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, June 19, 2024, as residents protest mass tourism. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)

Suitcases rattle against cobblestones. Selfie-snappers jostle for the same shot. Ice cream shops are everywhere. Europe has been called the world’s museum, but its record numbers of visitors have also made it ground zero for concerns about overtourism.

Last year, 747 million international travelers visited the continent, far outnumbering any other region in the world, according to the UN's World Tourism Barometer. Southern and Western Europe welcomed more than 70% of them, The Associated Press reported.

As the growing tide of travelers strains housing, water and the most Instagrammable hotspots in the region, protests and measures to lessen the effects of overtourism have proliferated.

Here's a look at the issue in some of Europe's most visited destinations.

What’s causing overtourism Among factors driving the record numbers are cheap flights, social media, the ease of travel planning using artificial intelligence and what UN tourism officials call a strong economic outlook for many rich countries that send tourists despite some geopolitical and economic tensions.

Citizens of countries like the US, Japan, China and the UK generate the most international trips, especially to popular destinations, such as Barcelona in Spain and Venice in Italy. They swarm these places seasonally, creating uneven demand for housing and resources such as water.

Despite popular backlash against the crowds, some tourism officials believe they can be managed with the right infrastructure in place.

Italy's Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè said she thinks tourism flows at crowded sites such Florence's Uffizi Galleries that house some of the world's most famous artworks could be better managed with AI, with tourists able to buy their tickets when they book their travel, even months in advance, to prevent surges.

She pushed back against the idea that Italy — which like all of its Southern European neighbors, welcomed more international visitors in 2024 than its entire population — has a problem with too many tourists, adding that most visits are within just 4% of the country's territory.

“It’s a phenomenon that can absolutely be managed,” Santanchè told The Associated Press in an interview in her office on Friday. "Tourism must be an opportunity, not a threat — even for local communities. That’s why we are focusing on organizing flows.”

Where overtourism is most intense Countries on the Mediterranean are at the forefront. Olympics-host France, the biggest international destination, last year received 100 million international visitors, while second-place Spain received almost 94 million — nearly double its own population.

Protests have erupted across Spain over the past two years. In Barcelona, the water gun has become a symbol of the city's anti-tourism movement after marching protests have spritzed unsuspecting tourists while carrying signs saying: “One more tourist, one less resident!”

The pressure on infrastructure has been particularly acute on Spain's Canary and Balearic Islands, which have a combined population of less than 5 million people. Each archipelago saw upwards of 15 million visitors last year.

Elsewhere in Europe, tourism overcrowding has vexed Italy's most popular sites including Venice, Rome, Capri and Verona, where Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet” was set. On the popular Amalfi Coast, ride-hailing app Uber offers private helicopter and boat rides in the summer to beat the crowds.

Greece, which saw nearly four times as many tourists as its own population last year, has struggled with the strain on water, housing and energy in the summer months, especially on popular islands such as Santorini, Mykonos and others.

The impact of overtourism In Spain, anti-tourism activists, academics, and the government say that overtourism is driving up housing costs in city centers and other popular locations due to the proliferation of short-term rentals that cater to visitors.

Others bemoan changes to the very character of city neighborhoods that drew tourists in the first place.

In Barcelona and elsewhere, activists and academics have said that neighborhoods popular with tourists have seen local shops replaced with souvenir vendors, international chains and trendy eateries.

On some of Greece's most-visited islands, tourism has overlapped with water scarcity as drought grips the Mediterranean country of 10.4 million.

In France, the Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum, shut down this week when its staff went on strike warning that the facility was crumbling beneath the weight of overtourism, stranding thousands of ticketed visitors lined up under the baking sun.

Angelos Varvarousis, a Barcelona- and Athens-based academic and urban planner who studies the industry, said overtourism risks imposing a “monoculture” on many of Europe's hotspots.

“It is combined with the gradual loss and displacement of other social and economic activities,” Varvarousis said.

What authorities are doing to cope Spain's government wants to tackle what officials call the country's biggest governance challenge: its housing crunch.

Last month, Spain's government ordered Airbnb to take down almost 66,000 properties it said had violated local rules — while Barcelona announced a plan last year to phase out all of the 10,000 apartments licensed in the city as short-term rentals by 2028. Officials said the measure was to safeguard the housing supply for full-time residents.

Elsewhere, authorities have tried to regulate tourist flows by cracking down on overnight stays or imposing fees for those visiting via cruises.

In Greece, starting July 1, a cruise tax will be levied on island visitors at 20 euros ($23) for popular destinations like Mykonos and 5 euros ($5.70) for less-visited islands like Samos.

The government has also encouraged visitors to seek quieter locations.
To alleviate water problems, water tankers from mainland Greece have helped parched islands, and the islands have also used desalination technology, which separates salts from ocean water to make it drinkable, to boost their drinking water.

Other measures have included staggered visiting hours at the Acropolis.
Meanwhile, Venice brought back an entry fee this year that was piloted last year on day-trippers who will have to pay between 5 and 10 euros (roughly $6 to $12) to enter the city during the peak season.