More Bad News In The Air

The severity of the ozone loss left little room for political maneuvering. The Senate responded virtually overnight with a 96-0 vote calling for an accelerated phaseout of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the ozone-depleting chemicals widely used as solvents and refrigerants. “The Clean Air Act says clearly that if the problem gets worse, we must respond,” said Tennessee Sen. Al Gore, sponsor of the amendment. “It’s taken an ozone hole over Kennebunkport to get the president’s attention.” Indeed, the White House quickly got on board: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief William Reilly said the administration would support a speeded-up schedule. A detailed government proposal may appear as early as next week.

The stakes couldn’t be greater. Ozone loss, says Greenpeace ozone specialist Alexandra Allen, “now amounts to a threat to the future of all life on earth.” Not only have CFCs continued to build up, but the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines has pumped ozone-depleting chemicals into the upper atmosphere. Reporting high levels of chlorine monoxide, an ozone destroyer derived from CFCS, NASA warned that an ozone “hole” of the sort discovered above Antarctica in 1985 could develop in the Northern Hemisphere. Last week the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) issued a report outlining the devastating consequences that could result from a 5 to 10 percent ozone depletion by the year 2000. They include increased severity of HIV and herpes infections; an additional 300,000 cases of skin cancer each year worldwide; and 1.6 million to 1.75 million more cases of cataracts. Researchers also predict that, because ultraviolet radiation seems to impede photosynthesis and protein formation, ozone loss could have a dramatic impact on world food production.

In the years since the discovery of the Antarctica “hole,” scientific findings have stayed one step ahead of efforts to limit CFC production. In 1987, nations signing the Montreal Protocol called for halving output of the offending chemicals by the year 2000. In 1990, as a sense of urgency grew, industrialized nations agreed to cease production by the end of the century. An upcoming meeting will likely move the goal up even further. The chemical industry - at work on CFC substitutes - has speeded up its own phaseout plans.

The ozone crisis offered the first evidence that human activity could actually threaten global systems. Environmental advocates believe the problem should sound a warning bell to scientists and policy planners who remain skeptical about the greenhouse effect, which theoretically could cause cataclysmic storms, droughts and heat waves. “The effects of CFCs were not manifest for years, but when they came they fell like a ton of bricks,” says Michael Oppenheimer of the Environmental Defense Fund. “The same could be true with global warming. With both, there’s a nasty combination of lag and irreversibility.” And there’s the rub. Even if all use of CFCs stopped tomorrow, the problem would continue: the ozone layer is not expected to recover fully before the middle of the next century. NASA’s resource team will be reporting again soon-and there’s little chance it will bring good news.

Man-Made Disaster

Earlier discoveries of ozone depletion came from the desolate South Pole, but now the damage has spread over densely populated areas of Asia, North America and Europe-including Moscow, London and Amsterdam.

MAP: Areas With Highest Concentration of Chlorine Monoxide: In parts per billion

PHOTO:A “threat to the future of all life on earth”: Volcanic eruption at Mount Pinatubo

Subject Terms: AIR – Pollution – Economic aspects