policy talk

Cosponsored with the Tremaine Forum on the Environment and the Undergraduate Seminar in Environmental Sciences.

The first scientific paper on the potential effects of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) on the stratospheric ozone layer appeared in Nature in June 1974. The Montreal Protocol of the United Nations (1987, modified in 1990 & 1992) now regulates the manufacture and emission of CFCs to the atmosphere. The Protocol has been observed to be very effective through direct monitoring of the CFC concentrations in the atmosphere.

On several occasions, specific questions concerning the atmospheric science and its consequences were prominently discussed both in the scientific literature and the media.

This lecture will focus on four such periods:

(1) The six-month delay in 1976 for the initial report of the National Academy of Sciences on the chlorofluorocarbon-stratospheric ozone problem.

(2) The cause(s) of the Antarctic Ozone Hole: Natural versus Anthropogenic

(3) The long-term evaluation of ground-based total ozone measurements

(4) The disconnect between ozone depletion and ultraviolet exposure at the surface.