Halocarbons and Stratospheric Ozone — a Warning from Antarctica

Abstract

The depletion of the ozone layer has been the outcome of an avenue of development along which society had been hurrying so rapidly that it had overlooked indications of a ‘Dead End’ around the corner. It seems that by good fortune rather than good judgement, an ‘End’ may now be in sight, with no o’ne dead or harmed. The agreement reached by ministers in Brussels in March of 1989, accepting the need to phase out completely the production of those CFCs and halons listed in the Montreal Protocol, shows that the seriousness of the situation has at last been recognised. It is encouraging, since in many ways the threat to the ozone layer can be regarded as a test case. If the world lacked the will to tackle what is essentially a simple technical problem, there would be little hope of its solving the more complex environmental and development problems which we are facing.