ozone layer :: essays papers

ozone layerSummary of Learning of the Ozone ExperienceOn the 16th of family line 1987, negotiators meeting in Montreal finalized a landmark in international environmental diplomacy the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer. The Successful Conclusion of the negotiations in Montreal was widely hailed at the time as a historic even. As the protocol was the most ambitious attempt ever to combat environmental degradation on a global scale. In the 10 old age since that meeting in Montreal, the accord has set in motion innumerous actions by national governments, international organizations, scientists, private enterprises, and individual consumers.The results are clear by 1995, global production of the most significant ozone-depleting substance (ODS) the chlorine, containing chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs) was down 76 percent from its peak in 1988. But ternion is a square lag amongst the time when emissions begin to wane and the point at which the ozone layer b egins to recover, as it takes years for CFCs and other ozone-depleting compounds to kitchen range the stratosphere, and some last for centuries once there. Yet it is clear that the Montreal Protocol ushered in a new era of environmental diplomacy. Although in some ship canal the ozone story is an inspiration, in other respects it is a cautionary tale.Since its beginning, the ozone experience has been characterized by a path breaking partnership between scientist and international policymakers. When CFCs were invented in the late twenties, they were viewed as wonder chemicals nontoxic, nonflammable, non-corrosive, and stable. The seeds of the Montreal Protocol were sow in 1974, when chemist Mario Molina and Sherwood Rowland at the University of California at Irvine published a landmark article in Nature. It hypothesized that the stability CFCs, while an asset for industrial applications, might prove deadly for the ozone layer.Yet the scientific process was ab initio slow to yi eld clear answers. Indeed, models in the early eighties suggested that CFCs would set about less severe ozone depletion than Molina and Rowland had initially hypothesized. Fortunately, the scientific collaboration initiated years primarily began to bear fruit. Two months after(prenominal) the Vienna agreement was reached, a scientific bombshell provided a much-needed jolt to protocol negotiations just then get under way. The findings took the world by surprise no such hurried decline had been predicted by any atmosphere models. Ten years after the historic Montreal signing ceremony, the response to the protocol around the world has been substantial indeed.