Ozone crisis: the case against chlorofluorocarbons

Manmade chemicals are now breaching the protective ozone layer over the Arctic, just as they produce the alarming ozone hole over the Antarctic each spring. This latest discovery adds to a large and disturbing body of scientific evidence that these chemicals are systematically depleting the stratospheric ozone that shields the Earth and its inhabitants from potentially dangerous ultraviolet radiation. This month representatives of the nations that were party to the international Montreal Protocol on ozone depletion (1987) are meeting again to strengthen its provisions, which now call for cutting chlorofluorocarbon use in half by 1998. The following article examines this complex and controversial issue. It is a condensed and updated version of a paper first published in Penn State's Earth and Mineral Sciences. -Author