But in a new study published Tuesday, some scientists claim it may not be recovering at all, and that the hole may even be expanding. In a paper, published by Nature Communications, they found that ozone levels have reduced by 26% since 2004 at the core of the hole in the Antarctic springtime. They used historical data to compare that behavior and changing ozone levels, and to measure signs of ozone recovery. “Altogether, our findings reveal the recent, large ozone holes may not be caused just by CFCs,” Kessenich said. “Those events have been shown to have strongly decreased the ozone hole size,” he said, “so including those events would probably have nullified any long-term negative trend.”

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Persons: ”, Hannah Kessenich, didn’t, ” Kessenich, —, Martin Jucker Organizations: CNN, Nature Communications, University of Otago, University of New, Science Media Center Locations: UN, Montreal, New Zealand, El, Southern, University of New South Wales, Australia