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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 3, NUMBER 6, JUNE 1990

REPORTS...
GENERAL AND POLICY

Item #d90jun54

Scientific Assessment of Stratospheric Ozone: 1989 (WMO Global Ozone Res. Mon. Proj. Rep. 20), Spring 1990. Published by the World Meteor. Org. (CP 5, CH-1211, Geneva 20, Switz.) in conjunction with the U.N. Environ. Prog., NASA (Earth Sci. Applic. Div., Washington DC 20546) and NOAA in the U.S., and the U.K. Dept. Environ (43 Marsham St., London SW1P 3PY).

Vol. I (approx. 500 pp.) is a scientific review of the current understanding of stratospheric ozone by international experts, intended to provide scientific input for international review of the Montreal Protocol. It builds on Atmospheric Ozone, 1985 (Global Climate Change Digest, REPORTS, Oct. 1988) and International Ozone Trends Panel Report: 1988 (WMO Rep. 18, in press). A 34-page executive summary contains two separate sections, one aimed at government officials, the private sector and the public, the other at scientists. Major findings since the 1985 assessment are: there is strong scientific evidence that anthropogenic chemicals are primarily responsible for the recently discovered Antarctic ozone depletion; the same potentially damaging processes have been identified in the Arctic stratosphere; there are downward trends in winter total ozone in the Northern Hemisphere that are not attributable to known natural processes; major deficiencies in mathematical models of ozone chemistry have been recognized.

Volume II--Appendix: AFEAS Report (approx. 500 pp.) gives results of the Alternative Fluorocarbon Environmental Acceptability Study, sponsored by 15 private firms and involving 52 international scientists. Included are 11 reviewed papers by one or more authors on topics such as physical and chemical properties, tropospheric lifetimes, degradation mechanisms in the air, seawater and cloudwater, ozone depletion potentials, global warming potentials, impact on photochemical oxidants such as tropospheric ozone, and biological and health effects.

Item #d90jun55

Global Climate Change: A Challenge to International Governance, C.L. Cooper, 44 pp., Feb. 1990. Aspen Inst., POB 150, Queenstown MD 21658; $5.

A raporteur's view (rather than a consensus report) of discussions among participants from the industrial, academic, governmental and nonprofit sectors, at the July 1989 Aspen Energy Policy Issues Forum (Aspen, Colo.). The industrialized countries face costly readjustments and are expected to help developing nations offset global warming, but the potential costs in the event of a significant climate change are also large. Points of agreement and disagreement are discussed.

Item #d90jun56

Preserving the Global Environment: The Challenge of Shared Leadership, 23 pp., May 1990. Free of charge from American Assembly, 412 Altschul Hall, Barnard Coll., Columbia Univ., New York NY 10027 (212-854-3456).

Presents the findings and general agreement resulting from April 1990 discussions among an international group representing various sectors, organized by the American Assembly and World Resources Institute. Among the findings: the industrialized countries must act to show they take environmental issues seriously; global population growth must be controlled; enough is known about global warming to justify an immediate U.S. policy response.