Download Carbon Indicator: Skin Cancer
View the Navigator

➔ Exposure to UV rays from the sun is the principal cause of skin cancers such as melanoma

➔ Greenhouse gases that warm the planet are also largely responsible for depleting the Earth’s upper atmosphere, allowing more UV radiation to reach ground levels

➔ The highly successful Montreal Protocol has phased out most ozone-depleting substances, however, so the root cause of the problem is already being addressed, with ozone depletion now set to recover

➔ Skin cancer rates have and will continue to increase, though, because of the lapse of time between accumulated UV exposure and the development of skin cancer