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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 10, NUMBER 1, JANUARY 1997

REPORTS...
OZONE DEPLETION: UV IMPACTS

Item #d97jan80

The Potential Effects of Ozone Depletion in the UK, Ultraviolet Measurements and Impacts Review Group, 1996, $30/£20 (HMSO).

Provides an independent review of the impact of current and projected levels of ozone depletion through increased UV impacts on human health, flora and fauna, air quality, and materials. A long-term trend in UV radiation has not yet been identified, but increased levels have been observed over short periods of time and the accumulated UV dose can be assumed to have increased above that received in the absence of ozone depletion. Estimates that over the next 50 years, an extra 8,000 skin cancers will occur as a result of anthropogenic ozone depletion.

Item #d97jan81

Effects of Increased Ultraviolet Radiation in the Arctic: An Interdisciplinary Report on the State of Knowledge and Research Needed, 1996 (IASC).

In addition to understanding the impacts of enhanced UV-B radiation on this region's ecosystems, research should be relevant to Arctic peoples, who should also be involved in the research and be given the results. Although the radiation that is damaging to humans has increased about 1% per year for the past 15 years, similar estimates are not available for ecosystem processes. The state of knowledge of the impacts on humans and ecosystems is poor. A comprehensive research program is outlined that focuses on monitoring the effects of UV radiation on Arctic human populations, most of which are indigenous. (Future progress may be facilitated by the formation of the Arctic Council by eight Arctic nations.)

Item #d97jan82

Concern for Europe's Tomorrow, 535 pp., May 1996, $97/DM 150 (WHO, European Regional Office).

The World Health Organization has called for full implementation of the amended Montreal Protocol, as well as additional, similar restrictions for CFC alternatives as the only way to prevent the emergence of serious health problems in Europe. The prospect of increased frequency of extreme climatic events has more important health implications than moderate changes in average temperature and weather conditions to which populations become adapted. Communicable diseases may also increase as the result of a warmer climate.