The Ozone Layer and Global Warming

Participants of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (kind of rolls off the tongue doesn’t it?) began a four day conference yesterday in Montreal, marking the 20th anniversary of the Protocol.

At an opening seminar on Sunday hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme and Environment Canada a wide range of issues were discussed and presentations given on the issue of ozone depletion, including a detailed look at the Montreal Protocol from it’s development and subsequent implementation these past two decades, the science of atmospheric ozone, and how ozone depletion interacts with other environmental issues – namely global warming.

With the increasing public awareness of global warming and climate change, combined with the overall success of the Montreal Protocol, the giant ozone-free hole over the Antarctic and arctic regions have faded a bit from the public eye.

The Montreal Protocol was implemented to phase out chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s) and to that end the treaty has been a great success. The industrialized nations have met their deadlines and the ozone hole over Antarctica is beginning to stabilize and put “the ozone layer on the road to recovery”, according to Achim Steiner, UN undersecretary general and UNEP executive director.

Presently, the concern now is that the replacement for CFC’s, the even more ponderously rendered Hydroflourocarbons (HCFC’s), are also unhealthy for the ozone layer, and a significant greenhouse gas to boot.

Under the Montreal Protocol, HCFC use is scheduled to end by 2030 in developed countries, and 2040 in undeveloped countries.

In the spirit of Montreal, scientists and governments appear to be working together with common purpose, many looking to accelerate the schedule by a decade. Doing so could reduce carbon emission globally by 3.5%. The Kyoto Treaty aims to eliminate 5.2% over 1990 levels by 2012 – and whether signatory nations will meet those goals is far from assured.

The response from the scientific community and governments, and the resulting implementation - and adherence – to the Montreal Protocol is an example of effective action in addressing a global environmental issue.

So it can be done.

In many ways, the “ends of the earth” – our polar regions – are the “canary in a coal mine”.

Two decades ago we saw, through scientific observation, a disturbing and rapidly growing ozone hole that reached a full 11.5 million square miles in 2000 of the Antarctic. Through a concerted and cooperative global effort, the ozone hole has shrunk every year since then.

We now see an arctic region increasingly stressed, in some cases even faster than scientist’s most pessimistic models, with the implications for global environmental consequences certainly at least as ominous as a growing hole in the ozone layer, and probably much worse.

And yet our response to global warming is mired in political posturing and almost fanatical, if ill-informed, "debate".

Let's look to the success of the Montreal Protocol. May some of that common vision and cooperation rub off on Kyoto and beyond.

Source and Further Reading:
Environmental News Network
Environment Canada

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