Record ozone destruction

LONDON — Latest figures showing record ozone depletion over the Arctic come as no surprise, since the world continues to sanction the production of ozone-destroying chemicals, Greenpeace said on March 12.

The statistics, released by the World Meteorological Organisation, show extremely low ozone levels of up to 45% depletion from Greenland to Scandinavia to western Siberia.

Despite the annual warnings from scientists, governments continue to weaken key aspects of the international ozone agreement, the Montreal Protocol. At the last meeting, in December, chemical industries around the world celebrated as their lobbying managed to secure years of future markets for ozone-destroying chemicals. At the same time the world's record ozone hole, bigger than the size of Europe, appeared over the Antarctic.

At the meeting, industrialised countries fought against stepping up their own controls, while making deals to ensure that developing countries would be able to wait for years before agreeing on any controls themselves.

Countries around the world are now taking the lead from that meeting and weakening their own legislation.

The Italian government is moving to change its strong ozone legislation, which could weaken an upcoming European Union regulation on methyl bromide and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs).

Similarly, the United States is now in the process of amending the Clean Air Act, which covers all ozone killers and the main new ozone destroying chemical, methyl bromide. Methyl bromide should be phased out by the year 2001. However, due to enormous pressure from chemical companies in the US, the act is now being undermined.

Ozone depletion causes skin cancer and eye cataracts, breaks down the immune system, harms crops and kills phytoplankton at the bottom of the marine food chain. According to UN figures, a sustained 16% ozone depletion could lead to a loss of up to 7 million tonnes of fish a year.

From GLW issue 225