Depletion Of Stratospheric Ozone

Depletion Of Stratospheric Ozone

Abstract

Reduction of stratospheric ozone surfaced as a political concern in the early 1970s in the United States in the debate over the devel­opment of a marketable line of supersonic transports. In the medial- 1970s it came a major political issue with regard to the use of CFCs in aerosol spray barrels, and in 1978 the United States banned the gratuitous use of CFCs as aerosol forces. sweats at ne­gotiating an transnational agreement controlling CFC use began in the 1980s and crowned in the 1987 Montreal Protocol. This paper traces the elaboration of policy responses to stratospheric ozone reduction. The elaboration of stratospheric ozone reduction policy can best be understood as a two- stage process. The first stage involves the emergence of stratospheric ozone reduction as a domestic issue in the United States and several other countries in the 1970s, while the alternate stage focuses on its metamorphosis to an transnational issue in the 1980s. In addition to the emergence of stratospheric ozone reduction as an transnational political issue, three other factors are important in understanding the sources of the Montreal Protocol(/) the evolving scientific understanding of the problem,( 2) adding public concern over the problem grounded on the trouble of skin cancer and the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole, and( 3) the vacuity of respectable backups for CFCs.