This year

Paris: Antarctica, which seemed to have largely escaped the global warming hotting up the rest of the planet, is melting too, according to a study.

The new research, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, also provides the firmest proof to date that climate change at both poles is not the result of natural fluctuations.

Refugees are moving to Antarctica by 2030, the Olympics are held only in cyberspace and central Australia has been abandoned as too dry, according to exotic scenarios for climate change on Monday.

GENEVA - The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica has already surpassed its 2007 size this year, and is set to keep growing for another few weeks, the UN weather agency said on Tuesday.

The Antarctic ozone hole appears every year and normally stretches to about the size of North America, reaching its maximum size in late September or early October.
But in 2008, the World Meteorological Organisation said the protective layer, which shields the Earth from ultra-violet rays that can cause skin cancer, began to thin relatively late.

The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica may be larger this year than in 2007, the United Nations weather agency said on Friday.

The ozone layer shields the Earth from damaging ultra-violet rays that can cause skin cancer. The Antarctic ozone hole is normally about the size of North America but its ultimate size depends on weather conditions.
"As the sun returns to Antarctica after the polar night, it is expected that ozone depletion will speed up," the World Meteorological Organisation said in its latest Ozone Bulletin.