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This book is the first comprehensive history of international efforts to protect the ozone layer, the greatest success yet achieved in managing human impacts on the global environment.Its arguments about how this success was achieved are both theoretically novel and of great significance for the management of other global problems, particularly global climate change. The book provides an account of the ozone-depletion issues from the first attempts to develop international action in the 1970s to the mature functioning of the present international regime.It examines the parallel developments of politics and negotiations, scientific understanding and controversy, technological progress, and industry strategy that shaped the issue's development and its effective management. In addition, the book offers important new insights into how the interactions among these domains influenced the formation and adaptation of the ozone regime.Addressing the initial formation of the regime, the book argues that authoritative scientific assessments were crucial in constraining policy debates and shaping negotiated agreements.Assessments gave scientific claims an ability to change policy actors' behavior that the claims themselves, however well known and verified, lacked. Concerning subsequent adaptation of the regime, the book identifies a series of feedbacks between the periodic revision of chemical controls and the strategic responses of affected industries, which drove rapid application of new approaches to reduce ozone-depleting chemicals.These feedbacks, promoted by the regime's novel technology assessment process, allowed worldwide use of the chemicals to decline further and faster than even the boldest predictions, by nearly 95 percent within ten years. ... Read more

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The passing of two decades since the inception of the Montreal Protocol has provided scientific proof of the treaty s effectiveness and truly deserves the title of the most successful environmental treaty to date. Having phased out 95 percent of the ozone-depleting substances covered in the treaty, the Montreal Protocol has not only allowed the ozone hole to begin the healing process, but as scientists have recently discovered, the treaty has also been an incredibly effective measure in mitigating climate change. Phasing out harmful ozone substances that double as deadly greenhouse gases has delayed climate forcing by 35-41 years. These ozone and climate benefits however, did not come easy. It took the work and partnership of many to build the strong, but flexible structure that is the Montreal Protocol today. The dedicated team of ozone officers from 191 countries and a critical funding mechanism developed to assist developing countries have been great contributors to its success.This book aims to take a comprehensive look at the Montreal Protocol from its very beginnings to the present, looking toward the future. Section I: Early History: Science, Diplomacy, and Leadership is comprised of articles that focus on the events leading up to the creation of the treaty and its early years. Section II: Dynamic Evolution: Technology, Assessment, and Funding lays out the structure of the Montreal Protocol, including the development of the Multilateral Fund which has made possible the involvement of developing countries in the phase-outs of ozone-depleting substances. The readings in Section III: New Challenges: Following Through with Ozone and Joining the Climate Battle, address the issue of climate change, and note that while it is appropriate to commend the Montreal Protocol and the ozone team for past successes, we cannot stop there. The authors speak to a proposed adjustment to the treaty: an accelerated phase-out of HCFCs which would bring enormous climate benefits much more than the emissions reductions expected from the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina, Guus Velders, K. Madhava Sarma, Durwood Zaelke, Rajendra Shende, Donald Kaniaru, Romina Picolotti, Steve O. Anderson, Mostafa Tolba, and Richard Elliot Benedick are among the contributors to this book. ... Read more

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A look at the damage done to the ozone layer reveals how India and China have ignored the CFC ban, how the planned Concorde could accelerate ozone depletion, and other facts about the hole in the ozone layer. ... Read more

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In the 1970s the world became aware of a huge danger: the destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer by CFCs escaping into the atmosphere and the damage this could do to human health and the food chain. So great was the threat that by 1987 the UN had succeeded in coordinating an international treaty to phase out emissions, which over the following 15 years has been implemented. It has been hailed as an outstanding success. It needed the participation of all the parties: governments, industry, scientists, campaigners, NGOs, and the media, and it is a model for future treaties. This volume provides the authoritative and comprehensive history of the whole process from the earliest warning signs to the present. It is an invaluable record for all those involved and a necessary reference for future negotiations to a wide range of scholars, students, and professionals. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

EXCELLENT book for understanding Montreal Protocol
This book providers the reader with wonderful insights to the development and the Montreal Protocol and amendments. It is a carefully crafted and detailed book for those seeking to learn how this dynamic international environmntal regime was developed and operates today. For any reader interested in knowing how a successful international environmental treaty can be made to work, this is the book. I highly recommend it for any student of environmental or international law. The book is especially ensightful as to how science is a driver for international climate policy. The book may also serve as a primer to the onging nexus of ozone depletion and climate change politics and science.

Student of Climate Change
As a student that is focusing my career on the issue of climate change, I found this book on ozone layer protection to be an extremely valuable resource.This book holds the general formula for how to deal with all global environmental concerns.Andersen and Sarma chronicle the way the world realized, rallied, fought, and in the end cooperated to save the world from impending disaster.The layout of the book makes it extremely accessible for focused readers- it designates chapters to tell the contributions of scientists, diplomats, businesspeople and engineers, media, and NGOs.The authors were deeply involved with all of these groups, enabling them to tell the inside story in each of these chapters.Their lessons are punctuated by exciting stories written by integral players in each of their fields.The reader will undoubtedly learn much by reading the chapter that relates most closely to him, and when he reads the entire book he'll find a story that is astonishing and inspiring.In asking Andersen and Sarma to write this book, the United Nations Environment Programme entrusted the right authors to portray their most impressive success story to date, and the result is a huge success. ... Read more

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A look at the damaging effects of chlorofluorocarbons on the atmosphere discusses the history of CFCs in industry, the discovery of the hole in the ozone layer in 1974, and the battle to restrict CFCs. 20,000 first printing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent history of the science and politics of ozone
I have read many books, both scholarly and popular, of the history of concern over stratospheric ozone and the negotiations of a treaty to protect the ozone layer. Cagin and Dray have written the best. They tell a riviting story of the discovery of the stratosphere, the invention of CFCs (Freons), and the science of stratospheric ozone depletion from the early concerns over supersonic airplanes through the expeditions to antarctica that finally explained the ozone hole.

The science is accurate, and is integrated into a political history of the environmental movement from Rachel Carson's Silent Spring to Ralph Nader's activism that led to Earth Day and the birth of the Environmental Protection Agency, to the international negotiations over a treaty to protect the ozone layer.

Cagin and Dray are engaging writers who deliver a blend of history, science, and biography that makes this book very difficult to put down.

The book's greatest defect is the obviously partisan political bias. The authors have a definite political position and their account of environmental policy under Ronald Reagan suffers from a lack of evenhandedness. When I assign this book to students, I caution them to take things with a grain of salt because of the authors' obviously biased treatment, but despite this problem, the quality of the history and the clarity with which Cagin and Dray explain the basic science make this book stand out as the best book to read if you're going to read just one book on ozone depletion.

If you are going to read more than one, Karen Litfin's Ozone Discourses has a much more sophisticated view of the interaction of science and politics in negotiating the ozone treaty, but does not explain the basics as clearly or as vividly as Cagin and Dray.

Richard Benedick's Ozone Diplomacy is also excellent, but focuses almost exclusively on the diplomacy (he was the principal negotiator for the U.S.) and does not spend enough time on the emerging science. ... Read more

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This series will make readers wonder what might happen if particular events occurred. Grounded in fact, each book assesses the possibility or threat of an event, from melting ice caps to a fuel shortage. Each book also offers suggestions on how to respond to these environmental and ecological challenges before it's too late. ... Read more

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Hailed in the Foreign Service Journal as "a landmark book that should command the attention of every serious student of American diplomacy, international environmental issues, or the art of negotiation," and cited in Nature for its "worthwhile insights on the harnessing of science and diplomacy," the first edition of Ozone Diplomacy offered an insider's view of the politics, economics, science, and diplomacy involved in creating the precedent-setting treaty to protect the Earth: the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer.

The first edition ended with a discussion of the revisions to the protocol in 1990 and offered lessons for global diplomacy regarding the then just-maturing climate change issue. Now Richard Benedick--a principal architect and the chief U.S. negotiator of the historic treaty--expands the ozone story, bringing us to the eve of the tenth anniversary of the Montreal Protocol. He describes subsequent negotiations to deal with unexpected major scientific discoveries and important amendments adding new chemicals and accelerating the phaseout schedules. Implementing the revised treaty has forced the protocol's signatories to confront complex economic and political problems, including North-South financial and technology transfer issues, black markets for banned CFCs, revisionism, and industry's willingness and ability to develop new technologies and innovative substitutes. In his final chapter Benedick offers a new analysis applying the lessons of the ozone experience to ongoing climate change negotiations.

Ozone Diplomacy has frequently been cited as the definitive book on the most successful environment treaty, and is essential reading for those concerned about the future of our planet.

Customer Reviews (2)

Pretty Good Condition for an Excellent Price
Condition of the book was amazing considering the price I paid.Took a little longer than expected to ship, but still within the companies guarantee date.Very polite and pleasant follow up e-mail.All in all, I am very pleased and would definetly buy from the company again.

Stripping away the sheen
This book is one of a handful that have appeared in the years since the Montreal Protocol that have addressed the motivations behind those that acted to bring the protocol into being.It questions the simple thesisthat it was simply an attempt to introduce environmental protection for oneof the Earths damaged resources, suggesting instead that the primarymotivation was more economically defined.the primary actors each hadsomething to be gained in seeing a ban on CFC's in favour of their(generally more expensive) alternative. In this regard it presents a massof evidence thatmight come as a surprise to those who believed that thetreaty was a hopeful first step towards international agreements to benefitthe Earth's environment, and it is a surprise that is unlikely to be apleasant one.It does no-one any good to hide from the truth however, andthe volume is thus a worthwhile read, as well as a useful pointer towardsfurther reading around this area. ... Read more

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Protecting the Ozone Layer: Lessons, Models, andProspects Since the mid-1980s, the international community hasadopted several significant instruments designed to reverse thedegradation of the life support systems of the planet. None of theseinternational agreements have been as successful as the 1987 MontrealProtocol in creating the incentives and mechanisms for protecting theozone layer. Through the efforts of industry, government and publicinterest groups, national commitments and achievements have progressedfurther and faster than expected, while the list of controlledchemicals has expanded. Now in its second decade, the Protocol entersa crucial phase of its implementation. Protecting the Ozone Layer: Lessons, Models, and Prospectspresents a wealth of information about the scientific,legal--political, and technological hurdles that we will have toovercome if humanity is to reverse its self-destructive course. Thetechnology section in particular should appeal to industries affectedby ozone layer protection as well as those affected by climateprotection, since this is the first ozone publication featuringinsights by the companies that spearheaded the major technologicalbreakthroughs. Every initiative to improve the environmental performance of industryhas been accompanied by pronouncements of economic devastation, fromacid rain to auto emissions standards, from auto mileage improvementsto the protection of the ozone layer. Each new initiative broughtclaims from industry that this situation was different, yet none oftheir predictions have come true. At a time when industry fightsefforts to protect the environment, the ozone experience shows bothhow technical breakthroughs have enabled environmental protectionpolicies to work in the past and how they will work again in thefuture. Protecting the Ozone Layer: Lessons, Models, and Prospects isthe product of a Colloquium that was organized in September 1997 tocelebrate the tenth anniversary of the Montreal Protocol.Contributions have been gathered from researchers and practitioners inthe field, including some of the very same scientists whose workawakened the international community to the seriousness of the dangerthat humanity now faces. Other contributors include the scholars anddiplomats who wrote and negotiated the text of the Protocol and itsamendments, and the key figures who have been influential inconvincing industry to support the process. ... Read more

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The ozone layer protects life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation but this protective shield is being damaged by chlorofluorocarbons and other pollutants that are now being generated on the Earth. ... Read more

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In the stratosphere, ozone performs a vital role by absorbing ultraviolet (UV) radiation and acting as a protective layer for life on Earth. Ultraviolet Reflections: Life Under a Thinning Ozone Layer examines the effects of increasing UV radiation on people, plants and animals. It takes the reader on a journey from the Antarctic ozone hole to the Arctic birch forest, to see how plankton and plants will fare against increasing UV radiation. We know the dangers for skin cancer, but this book also raises intriguing questions about the evolution of our immune system and uncovers scientific controversy in the discussion of eye disease. The accessible style of this book gives readers at all levels an insight into the complexities of how life has evolved to deal with the destructive power of the sun. Moreover, it gives the reader a chance to follow international policy, as well as current research in the field. The book is aimed at those who do not have time to follow the scientific literature in all the fields, but who are not satisfied with simple answers: science teachers trying to convey basic ideas about the environment, students who want to know things that you cannot find in the text books, environmentalists and policy makers needing more than statements of scientific consensus. Most of all it is written for anyone ready to reflect on one of the major environmental issues of today. ... Read more

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Ideal for today's young investigative reader, each A True Book includes lively sidebars, a glossary and index, plus a comprehensive "To Find Out More" section listing books, organizations, and Internet sites. A staple of library collections since the 1950s, the new A True Book series is the definitive nonfiction series for elementary school readers. ... Read more

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Describes the ozone layer, explains how it is broken down, and suggests ways to reduce air pollution. ... Read more

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The Ozone Layer is an accessible history of stratospheric ozone, from its discovery in the nineteenth century to current investigations of the Antarctic ozone hole. Drawing directly on the scientific literature, Christie uses the story of ozone as a case study for examining fundamental issues relating to the practice of modern science and the conduct of scientific debate. Linking key debates in the philosophy of science to an example of real-world science it is an excellent and thought-provoking introduction to the philosophy of science. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Calm, thoughtful and relevant
I heartily recommend this book if:

1) You are interested the question of ozone depletion but a bit hazy on the detail (did you realise that the explanation for Antartic ozone hole is really quite different from the initial theory for CFC depletion of ozone)

2) Are interested in the philosophy of science. What a good idea to tie it so closely to real example.

Incidentally there is a fine demolition of the sceptical position at the end - but that is not what drives this book.

My only criticism - it is easy to read and very clear but a bit inclined to repeat itself. ... Read more