A report to be published in the Journal of Geophysical Research on September 9th projects, at the current recovery rates, ozone in the atmosphere could return to 1980 levels by the middle of this century.

The effort began in 1989 when more than two dozen countries joined together to replace the main culprit - chloroflourocarbons (CFCs). Unfortunately, little attention was paid to what would be used to replace CFCs. And, as usually happens when no one is paying attention, the users utilized the cheapest replacement products, with no concern as to long-term consequences. The replacements have now been shown to have caused a significant increase in global warming. So, we are on the road to fix one problem and have unintentionally dramatically worsened another.

Sadly, Switzerland first raised the alarm on the replacement products in 1990 and got no reaction. Sixteen years later, we are just facing up to the sizeable impact. But the United Nations fund doles out $150M a year to continue to help developing countries move from the old to the new product. Under the 1989 treaty, industrial countries have until 2030 and developing countries until 2040 to quit using HCFCs and HFCs, the replacement products. It is still not clear what the next products will be, but let's hope someone studies their effects before we unwittingly cause another problem, and let's hope someone comes up with something soon because global warming is being significantly impacted by an unintentional consequence.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive