The Mighty Australian Sun

Oz is rich in many things, including beaches and sunny days. I talked before about the Aussie sky, which is intensely blue, more than I have ever seen it from any other part of the world. The sun also has features I have never felt before. The most impressive is power. By this I mean that even in the winter, if the sun comes out and you’re simply basking, it will burn you. It feels as if the sun makes holes in your skin, and ashes fly off from your scorched body... I believe this has to do with the ozone hole so generously spreading over most parts of Antarctica and this continent. Ozone blocks the harmful rays, and without it, nothing else diminishes their power. Directly related to this is the high incidence of melanoma, the skin cancer everyone who ever went sunbathing should worry about. Of course, most Aussies being of British or Irish descent, their skin is white and burns easily, so the fair skin persons are at much higher risk. If they live in the sunny center or the North, they are more exposed to the sun and thus to the risk of melanoma. The weather forecast is always accompanied by the UV levels and rarely they are lower than “extreme” for most of the day from spring well into the fall. The good news, from a few days ago, is that the ozone hole is shrinking and by mid-century it should be back to where it had been in the nineteen eighties. So living in Oz means enjoying the sun while fearing its power and respecting its effect.