An alarming discovery was reported on the front page on this day in 1990, after a Bureau of Meteorology researcher found a significant three-year drop in ozone levels above Macquarie Island.
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The discovery was the first firm evidence of the ozone hole's potential to spread wider than just over Antarctica. The head of the bureau's Ozone Science Unit, Dr Paul Lehman, said the fall in ozone levels had been the largest and most consistent of the previous recorded falls. The measurements from Macquarie Island revealed a 10 per cent fall in average ozone levels over the previous three years leading up to 1989.
While it was possible the fall in ozone levels was due to some extraordinary natural event, Dr Lehman said if this was the case it defied any known explanation, and had continued for an exceptionally long time.
If it was not the case that the fall was caused by an extraordinary natural event, then it would serve as further evidence of damage done by human-made chemicals and climate changes caused by the greenhouse effect.
"What's it leading to?" Dr Lehman said. "Something very sick? It could be."
There would be a meeting the following week in London on the 1987 Montreal Protocol, where it was expected 100 nations would follow Australia in agreeing to stricter measures against ozone-damaging chemicals, and it was possible the results found by the bureau would be released there.
