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Sometimes you read about skin cancer and the ozone hole in Australia. But when you look it up the ozone hole is basically just near the South Pole, and maybe a bit above the North Pole (because that’s where it’s really cold).

But has the rest of the world even been really affected? Looking at this NASA graphic it doesn’t seem there were significant changes for most people. Perhaps the average ozone levels in Europe or Australia even increased?

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  • $\begingroup$ Yes. of course. $\endgroup$
    – Penguin9
    Commented Jan 25, 2017 at 13:44
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    $\begingroup$ Related: earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/5162/… $\endgroup$
    – arkaia
    Commented Jan 25, 2017 at 15:26
  • $\begingroup$ Chloroflurocarbons deplete ozone world wide. The effect is just worse over Antarctica. So Antarctica is like the canary in the coal mine warning of an impending disaster. $\endgroup$
    – MaxW
    Commented Jan 26, 2017 at 5:43
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    $\begingroup$ I think so, but the effect is most in Antarctic. $\endgroup$
    – MathWA wenti
    Commented Jan 26, 2017 at 23:58
  • $\begingroup$ The atmosphere mixes globally, no? So if ozone is destroyed during the Antarctic night, ozone-depleted air will blow out of the 'hole', new air will blow in and have its ozone destroyed in turn. Thus it woud seem that this should eventually reduce global ozone. $\endgroup$
    – jamesqf
    Commented Feb 11, 2017 at 20:03

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The ozone hole size changes according to the season. It is usually larger in winter because cold temperature Why is the Ozone Layer 'hole' more pronounced in the Southern Hemisphere?

And in this graph you can see that the ozone level is lower in Australia, South Africa and south America area. http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/sbuv2to/gif_files/sbuv18_sh_latest.gif

In a broader scale, it does have an impact to the rest of the world. A thinning ozone can cause stratosphere cooling. Scientists are still studying this http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/science/ozone-hole-and-gw-faq.html#.WJx_YLNqPU8

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  • $\begingroup$ Stratospheric cooling makes sense, given that the ozone layer is literally why the stratosphere is warmer than the layers above and below it. $\endgroup$
    – Vikki
    Commented Sep 18, 2021 at 1:13

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