Ozone depletion and climate change, or Ozone hole global warming in more popular terms, are environmental challenges whose connections have been explored and which have been compared and contrasted, for example in terms of global regulation, in various studies and books.
There is widespread scientific interest in better regulation of
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
,
ozone depletion and
air pollution
Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different typ ...
, as in general the human relationship with the biosphere is deemed of major
historiographical
Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians hav ...
and political significance. Already by 1994 the legal debates about respective regulation regimes on climate change, ozone depletion and air pollution were being dubbed "monumental" and a combined synopsis provided.
There are some parallels between atmospheric chemistry and anthropogenic emissions in the discussions which have taken place and the regulatory attempts which have been made. Most important is that the gases causing both problems have long lifetimes after emission to the atmosphere, thus causing problems that are difficult to reverse. However, the
Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer
The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer is a multilateral environmental agreement signed in 1985 that provided frameworks for international reductions in the production of chlorofluorocarbons due to their contribution to the d ...
and the
Montreal Protocol
The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion. It was agreed on 16 September 1987, and entered into force o ...
that amended it are seen as success stories, while the
Kyoto Protocol on anthropogenic climate change has largely failed. Currently, efforts are being undertaken to assess the reasons and to use synergies, for example with regard to
data reporting Data reporting is the process of collecting and submitting data which gives rise to accurate analyses of the facts on the ground; inaccurate data reporting can lead to vastly uninformed decision-making based on erroneous evidence. Different from da ...
and policy design and further exchanging of information. While the general public tends to see global warming as a subset of ozone depletion, in fact ozone and chemicals such as
chlorofluorocarbon
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are fully or partly halogenated hydrocarbons that contain carbon (C), hydrogen (H), chlorine (Cl), and fluorine (F), produced as volatile derivatives of methane, ethane, and pro ...
s (CFCs) and other
halocarbons, which are held responsible for ozone depletion, are important
greenhouse gases. Furthermore, natural levels of ozone in both the
stratosphere and
troposphere
The troposphere is the first and lowest layer of the atmosphere of the Earth, and contains 75% of the total mass of the planetary atmosphere, 99% of the total mass of water vapour and aerosols, and is where most weather phenomena occur. From ...
have a warming effect.
Policy approach
![Bob Watson](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Bob_Watson.jpg)
There are both links and major differences between ozone depletion and global warming and the way the two challenges have been handled. While in the case of atmospheric ozone depletion, in a situation of high uncertainty and against strong resistance, climate change regulation attempts at the international level such as the Kyoto Protocol have failed to reduce global emissions.
[
The ]Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer
The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer is a multilateral environmental agreement signed in 1985 that provided frameworks for international reductions in the production of chlorofluorocarbons due to their contribution to the d ...
and the Montreal Protocol were both originally signed by only some member states of the United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
(43 nations in the case of the Montreal Protocol in 1986) while Kyoto attempted to create a worldwide agreement from scratch. Expert consensus concerning CFCs
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are fully or partly halogenated hydrocarbons that contain carbon (C), hydrogen (H), chlorine (Cl), and fluorine (F), produced as volatile derivatives of methane, ethane, and propan ...
in the form of the Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion
The Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion is a sequence of reports sponsored by WMO/UNEP. The most recent report is from 2018. The reports were set up to inform the Montreal Protocol and amendments about ozone depletion.
Background
The Mont ...
was reached long after the first regulatory steps were taken, and , all countries in the United Nations plus the Cook Islands
)
, image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg
, capital = Avarua
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Avarua
, official_languages =
, lan ...
, the Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...
, Niue
Niue (, ; niu, Niuē) is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Zealand. Niue's land area is about and its population, predominantly Polynesian, was about 1,600 in 2016. Niue is located in a triangle between Tong ...
and the supranational Supranational or supra-national may refer to:
* Supranational union, a type of multinational political union
* Supranational law, a form of international law
* Supranational legislature, a form of international legislature
* Supranational curre ...
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
had ratified the original Montreal Protocol
The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion. It was agreed on 16 September 1987, and entered into force o ...
. These countries have also ratified the London, Copenhagen, and Montreal amendments to the Protocol. , the Beijing amendments had not been ratified by two state parties.
After the Vienna Convention, the halocarbon industry shifted its position and started supporting a protocol to limit CFC production. US manufacturer DuPont acted more quickly than their European counterparts. The EU shifted its position as well after Germany, which has a substantial chemical industry, gave up its defence of the CFC industry[ and started supporting more regulation. Government and industry in France and the UK had tried to defend their CFC-producing industries even after the Montreal Protocol had been signed.]Reiner Grundmann
Reiner Grundmann, (born 29 September 1955 near Freudenstadt) is Professor of Science and Technology Studies (STS) at the University of Nottingham and Director of its interdisciplinary STS Research Priority Group. He is a German sociologist and ...
, ''Transnational Environmental Policy'', London: Routledge,
The Vienna Convention was installed before a scientific consensus on the ozone hole was established.Reiner Grundmann
Reiner Grundmann, (born 29 September 1955 near Freudenstadt) is Professor of Science and Technology Studies (STS) at the University of Nottingham and Director of its interdisciplinary STS Research Priority Group. He is a German sociologist and ...
br>"Technische Problemlösung, Verhandeln und umfassende Problemlösung", (Technical trouble shooting, negotiating and generic problem solving capability)
in ''Gesellschaftliche Komplexität und kollektive Handlungsfähigkeit'' (Complexity of society and collective ability to act), ed. Schimank, U. (2000). Frankfurt/Main: Campus, pp. 154–8
book summary
at the Max Planck Gesellschaft On the contrary, until the 1980s the EU, NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
, NAS, UNEP
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on ...
, WMO and the British government had issued scientific reports with divergent conclusions.[ Sir Robert (Bob) Watson, Director of the Science Division at NASA, played a crucial role in the process of reaching a unified assessment.][
]
Policy and consensus
Aant Elzinga wrote in 1996 about the consensus, that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has tried in the prior two reports a global consensus approach to climate action. Stephen Schneider and Paul N. Edwards, noted in 1997, that after the IPCC Second Assessment Report
The Second Assessment Report (SAR) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in 1995, is an assessment of the then available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change. The report was split into four par ...
, the lobby group Global Climate Coalition
The Global Climate Coalition (GCC) (1989–2001) was an international lobbyist group of businesses that opposed action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and publicly challenged the science behind global warming. The GCC was the largest industry g ...
and a few self-proclaimed “contrarian
A contrarian is a person who holds a contrary position, especially a position against the majority.
Investing
A contrarian investing style is based on identifying, and speculating against, movements in stock prices that reflect changes in t ...
” scientists tried to discredit the conclusions of the report. They pointed out that the goal of the IPCC is to fairly represent the complete range of credible scientific opinion and if possible a consensus view.
In 2007, Reiner Grundmann
Reiner Grundmann, (born 29 September 1955 near Freudenstadt) is Professor of Science and Technology Studies (STS) at the University of Nottingham and Director of its interdisciplinary STS Research Priority Group. He is a German sociologist and ...
compared climate actions in Europe and the United States, he interpreted the inaction besides existing consensus, and noted, ''Political agenda that drove US climate change policy. The high visibility of skeptical
Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...
scientists in the media resonates with this'', and wrote that Germany started ambitious goals, reduced emissions, because ‘balanced reporting’ led to a bias in climate change coverage in advantage of skeptical arguments in the U.S., but not so much in Germany. Additionally, Grundmann pointed out that after warnings from scientists in 1986 the German Parliament
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...
commissioned the ''Enquetekommission ‘Vorsorge zum Schutz der Erdatmosphäre’'' (Precaution for the Protection of the Earth's Atmosphere), to assess the situation, consisting of scientists, politicians and representatives of interest groups. Three years later the report made an impact with the assessment of the state of the art in climate research, an assessment of the threat of climate change itself as well as suggestions for clear emissions reduction targets, even though he argues there was no consensus, and attributed the success of the report to strong precautionary action, and that no scientific outsiders or climate change deniers were involved.
A linear model of policy-making, based on a position that "the more knowledge we have, the better the political response will be", was not applied in the ozone case.[ Current Sociology November 2010 vol. 58 no. 6 897-910, se]
Lever Tracy's paper in the same journal
On the contrary, the CFC regulation process focused more on managing ignorance and uncertainties as a basis of political decision making, as the relationships between science, public (lack of) understanding and policy were better taken into account. In the meantime, such a player in the IPCC process as Michael Oppenheimer
Michael Oppenheimer (born February 28, 1946) is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, the Department of Geosciences, and the Princeton Environmental Ins ...
conceded some limitations of the IPCC consensus approach and asked for concurring, smaller assessments of special problems instead of repetitions of the large-scale approach every six years.Michael Oppenheimer
Michael Oppenheimer (born February 28, 1946) is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, the Department of Geosciences, and the Princeton Environmental Ins ...
et al., "The limits of consensus", in ''Science Magazine's State of the Planet 2008-2009: with a Special Section on Energy and Sustainability'', Donald Kennedy, Island Press, 01.12.2008, separate as It has become more important to provide a broader exploration of uncertainties.[ Others also see mixed blessings in the drive for consensus within the IPCC process and have asked for dissenting or minority positions to be included][Mike Hulme]
"Lessons from the IPCC: do scientific assessments need to be consensual to be authoritative?"
in (eds.) Doubleday, R. and Willesden, J. March 2013, page 142 ff or for statements about uncertainties to be improved.[Do scientific assessments need to be consensual to be authoritative?]
Curry, JA and PJ Webster, 2012: "Climate change: no consensus on consensus". CAB Reviews, in press, 2012
Public opinion
The two atmospheric problems have achieved significantly different levels of understanding by the public, including both the basic science and policy issues.[ People have limited scientific knowledge about global warming and tend to confuse it with or see it as a subset of the ozone hole. Not only on the policy level, ozone regulation fared much better than climate change in public opinion. Americans voluntarily switched away from aerosol sprays before the legislation was enforced, while climate change has failed in achieving a broader scientific comprehension and in raising comparable concern.][
The metaphors used in the CFC discussion (ozone shield, ozone hole) resonated better with non-scientists and their concerns.][ The ozone case was communicated to lay persons "with easy-to-understand bridging metaphors derived from the ]popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
" and related to "immediate risks with everyday relevance", while the public opinion on climate change
file:20210126 Peoples' Climate Vote - Public belief in climate emergency - United Nations Development Programme.svg, upright=1.3, ''Perception of seriousness:'' Results of a survey overseen by the United Nations Development Programme on belief ...
sees no imminent danger.[ The ozone hole was much more seen as a "hot issue" and imminent risk compared to global climate change,] as lay people feared a depletion of the ozone layer ( ozone shield) risked increasing severe consequences such as skin cancer
Skin cancers are cancers that arise from the skin. They are due to the development of abnormal cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. There are three main types of skin cancers: basal-cell skin cancer (BCC) ...
, cataract
A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry or double vision, halos around light, trouble ...
s, damage to plants, and reduction of plankton
Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a crucia ...
populations in the ocean's photic zone. This was not the case with global warming.[
]
Personal risk assessment and knowledge
Sheldon Ungar
a Canadian sociologist, assumes that while the quantity of specialized knowledge is exploding, in contrast scientific ignorance among lay people is the norm and even increasing. Public opinion failed to tie climate change to concrete events which could be used as a threshold or beacon to signify immediate danger.[ Scientific predictions of a temperature rise of to over several decades do not resonate with people, for example in North America, who experience similar swings during a single day.][ As scientists define global warming as a problem of the future, a liability in the "attention economy", pessimistic outlooks in general and the attribution of extreme weather to climate change have often been discredited or ridiculed in the public arena (compare the Gore effect). Even when James Hansen tried to use the 1988–89 North American drought as a call to action, scientists kept stating, in line with the IPCC findings, that even extreme weather is not climate.][ While the greenhouse effect, ''per se'', is essential for life on earth, the case was quite different with the ]ozone hole
Ozone depletion consists of two related events observed since the late 1970s: a steady lowering of about four percent in the total amount of ozone in Earth's atmosphere, and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone (the ozone lay ...
and other metaphors about ozone depletion. The scientific assessment of the ozone problem also had large uncertainties; both the ozone content of the upper atmosphere and its depletion are complicated to measure and the link between ozone depletion and rates of enhanced skin cancer is rather weak. But the metaphors used in the discussion (ozone shield, ozone hole) resonated better with lay people and their concerns.
The CFC regulation attempts at the end of the 1980s profited from those easy to grasp metaphors and the personal risk assumptions taken from them. The fate of celebrities like President Ronald Reagan, who had skin cancer removal from his nose in 1985 and 1987, was also of high importance. In case of the public opinion on climate change, no imminent danger is perceived.[
]
Cost-benefit assessments and industry policy
Cass Sunstein and others have compared the differing approach of the United States to the Montreal Protocol, which it accepted, and the Kyoto Protocol, which it rejected. Sunstein assumes that the cost-benefit assessments of climate change action for the US were instrumental in the US' withdrawal from participation in Kyoto.[Of Montreal and Kyoto: A Tale of Two Protocols]
by Cass R. Sunstein 38 ELR 10566 8/2008 Daniel Magraw, also a lawyer, considers governmental motivations besides relative costs and benefits as being of higher importance.[ ]Peter Orszag
Peter Richard Orszag (born December 16, 1968) is the CEO of Financial Advisory at Lazard. Before June 2019, he was the firm's Head of North American M&A and Global Co-Head of Healthcare.
Orszag previously served as a Vice Chairman of Corporate ...
and Terry Dinan
Terry is a unisex given name, derived from French Thierry and Theodoric. It can also be used as a diminutive nickname for the names Teresa or Theresa (feminine) or Terence or Terrier (masculine).
People
Male
* Terry Albritton (1955–2005), A ...
took an insurance perspective and assume that an assessment which predicted dire consequences of climate change would be more of a motivation for the US to change its stance on global warming and adopting regulation measurements.[
The US chemical company DuPont had already lost some of their zeal in defending their products after a strategic manufacturing patent for ]Freon
Freon ( ) is a registered trademark of the Chemours Company and generic descriptor for a number of halocarbon products. They are stable, nonflammable, low toxicity gases or liquids which have generally been used as refrigerants and as aerosol prope ...
was set to expire in 1979. A citizen boycott of spray cans gained importance in parallel. Not by chance, the United States banned the use of CFCs in aerosol cans in 1978.
Government and industry in France and the UK tried to defend their CFC-producing industries even after the Montreal Protocol had been signed. The European Community rejected proposals to ban CFCs in aerosol sprays for a long time. The EU shifted its position after Germany, which also has a large chemical industry, gave up its defence of the CFC industry[ and started supporting moves towards regulation. After regulation was more and more enforced, DuPont acted faster than their European counterparts as they may have feared court action related to increased skin cancer, especially as the ]EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
had published a study in 1986 claiming that an additional 40 million cases and 800,000 cancer deaths were to be expected in the US in the next 88 years. The identification and marketing of a 100% ozone-safe hydrocarbon refrigerant called "Greenfreeze" by the NGO Greenpeace in the early 1990s had a rapid significant impact in major markets of Europe and Asia. The climate change protocols were less successful. In the case of Kyoto, then secretary of the environment Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...
, prevented a possible failure by suggesting to use 1990 as starting date for emission reduction. In so far the demise of the Eastern European heavy industry allowed for a high commitment, but actual emissions kept on growing on a global scale.
Science background
There are various links between the two fields of human-atmospheric interaction. Policy experts have advocated for a closer linking of ozone protection and climate protection efforts.
Drew Shindell Drew Shindell is a physicist and a climate specialist and professor at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. He is listed as an ISI Highly Cited Researcher. He was a chapter lead (coordinating lead author) of the Intergovernmental ...
has used climate models to assess both climate change and ozone depletion. In his view, while research up to now has been more about the impact of CFC emissions on stratospheric ozone, the future will be more about the interaction between climate change and ozone feedback.[ Ozone is a greenhouse gas itself. Many ozone-depleting substances are also greenhouse gases, some agents of ]radiative forcing
Radiative forcing (or climate forcing) is the change in energy flux in the atmosphere caused by natural or anthropogenic factors of climate change as measured by watts / metre2. It is a scientific concept used to quantify and compare the extern ...
are thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide over the short and medium term. The increases in concentrations of these chemicals have produced 0.34 ± 0.03 W/m2 of radiative forcing, corresponding to about 14% of the total radiative forcing from increases in the concentrations of well-mixed greenhouse gases. Already the natural ozone variability in the stratosphere seems to be closely correlated with the 11-year solar cycle of irradiance changes and has, via a dynamic coupling between the stratosphere and troposphere, a significant impact on climate.[Solar Cycle Variability, Ozone, and Climate, Drew Shindell et al., Solar Cycle Variability, Ozone, and Climate (Science, vol. 284. no. 5412, pp. 305 - 308, 9 April 1999)]
As with carbon dioxide and methane, there are some natural sources of tropospheric chlorine, such as sea spray
Sea spray are aerosol particles formed from the ocean, mostly by ejection into Earth's atmosphere by bursting bubbles at the air-sea interface. Sea spray contains both organic matter and inorganic salts that form sea salt aerosol (SSA). SSA ha ...
. Chlorine from ocean spray is soluble and thus is washed by rainfall before it reaches the stratosphere. It is ''stratospheric'' chlorine that affects ozone depletion. Only methyl chloride
Chloromethane, also called methyl chloride, Refrigerant-40, R-40 or HCC 40, is an organic compound with the chemical formula . One of the haloalkanes, it is a colorless, odorless, flammable gas. Methyl chloride is a crucial reagent in industria ...
, which is one of the halocarbons, has a mainly natural source, and it is responsible for about 20% of the chlorine in the stratosphere; the remaining 80% comes from man-made sources. Chlorofluorocarbons, in contrast, are insoluble and long-lived, allowing them to reach the stratosphere. In the lower atmosphere, there is much more chlorine from CFCs and related haloalkanes than there is in hydrogen chloride from salt spray, and in the stratosphere halocarbons are dominant.
The same radiative forcing that produces global warming is expected to cool the stratosphere. This cooling, in turn, is expected to produce a relative ''increase'' in ozone () depletion in the polar area and in the frequency of ozone holes.Ozone depletion
UNEP/DEWA/Earthwatch Conversely, ozone depletion represents a radiative forcing of the climate system of about −0.15 ± 0.10 watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
s per square metre (W/m2).
See also
*Climate change in the Arctic
Major environmental issues caused by contemporary climate change in the Arctic region range from the well-known, such as the loss of sea ice or melting of the Greenland ice sheet, to more obscure, but deeply significant issues, such as permaf ...
References
Further reading
* (Ambassador Benedick was the Chief U.S. Negotiator at the meetings that resulted in the Montreal Protocol.)
* Chasek, Pam, David L. Downie, and J.W. Brown (2013). ''Global Environmental Politics'', 6th Edition, Boulder: Westview Press.
* Andersen, Stephen O., K. Madhava Sarma and Kristen N. Taddonio. 2007., Technology Transfer for the Ozone Layer: Lessons for Climate Change, Earthscan Press, London.
*
*
*
* David L. Downie (2013) "Stratospheric Ozone Depletion". ''The Routledge Handbook of Global Environmental Politics''. New York: Routledge.
*
*
*
External links
Is there a connection between the ozone hole and global warming?
Union of Concerned Scientists
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is a nonprofit science advocacy organization based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. Anne Kapuscinski, Professor of Environmenta ...
FAQ
WHOClimate change and stratospheric ozone depletion. Early effects on our health in Europe
* ttp://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2005/04/ozone-depletion-and-global-warming/ Ozone depletion and global warming, realclimate Blog entry from Gavin Schmidt 2005
IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007: Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis, Stratospheric Ozone and Climate
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ozone depletion and global warming
Climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
Climate change