Global Scans · Ozone depletion · Weekly Summary

A global catastrophic risk is a hypothetical future event that has the potential to damage human well-being on a global scale. Some events could cripple or destroy modern civilization. Any event that could cause human extinction is known as an existential risk.

• [New] A relatively small nuclear war between India and Pakistan could do just as much damage to the ozone layer as a larger nuclear war between the US and Russia. Electricity Info
• [New] A nuclear war between India and Pakistan could destroy the ozone layer. Electricity Info
• What the authors found is interesting: UV radiation flooding out from an active galaxy could actually promote the growth of protective ozone in a planet's atmosphere, assuming there's enough oxygen available to make it. Scientific American
• Most regions meet the AQGs for ozone after 2070, significantly later than PM2.5. Nature
• By 2100, the global population-weighted annual PM2.5 and ozone would be 13 µg m and 37 parts per billion by volume under the SSP2_baseline scenario, which lie significantly higher than the AQGs. Nature
• Particulate matter and ozone are potent health hazards-in fact, they are criteria pollutants regulated by EPA - and more commonly associated with vehicle and industrial emissions, but their potential generation by biopesticides must be considered. Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog
• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will stop calculating the economic cost of harms to human health from emissions of ozone and PM2.5 - airborne fine particulate matter that is 2.5 micrometers or smaller. JD Supra
• The ozone layer will recover to its state in 1980 over the tropics and middle latitudes by 2040. Scientific American
• The stratospheric ozone layer would fully recover in 2066. Chemistry World
• Emissions of certain ozone-depleting chemicals used in industry could delay the recovery of the Earth's ozone layer by as much as 11 years. Chemistry World
• Total emissions of ozone-depleting substances continue to fall across all scenarios until about 2050, thanks to restrictions already in place. ScienceDaily
• The landmark agreement phased out chlorofluorocarbons from household products that had opened a hole in the ozone layer, leading toward a full recovery expected by 2066. CNet
• In the scenario where feedstock leakage is 0.5%, the ozone returns to its 1980 status by 2066. MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Until 2050, total ozone-depleting chemical emissions decrease in all scenarios as rising feedstock emissions are offset by declining uses enforced by the Montreal Protocol. MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• An exception in the Montreal Protocol for the use of ozone-depleting feedstocks could set the ozone recovery back seven years. MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• With leakage reduced to 0.5%, the ozone layer would recover to its 1980 condition by 2066. ScienceDaily
• By 2050, the AQI alerts would increase, driven mostly by ozone. News-Medical
• By 2050, an additional 8.5 million Americans could be living in areas with high ozone levels. News-Medical

Last updated: 22 June 2026