Paul A. Newman NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Winner of the 2011 Nordberg Award

 
"The Montreal Protocol and the Recent Findings of the Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2010"

The ozone layer is the Earth’s natural sunscreen, blocking harmful ultraviolet radiation.  Scientific findings that the ozone layer was threatened by human-produced chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) led to the landmark 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer (a protocol to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer).

In this talk, I will give some background on the Protocol (from my parochial science viewpoint), but I will primarily focus on the science findings from the recently published “Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2010”.  This assessment is written by the international science community (with major contributions from Goddard scientists), and is the latest in a long series of reports that provide the science foundation for the Protocol.

This assessment demonstrates that the Montreal Protocol is working, and that there are early signs that ozone is beginning to respond to decreasing CFC levels (a science and public policy success story).  The assessment spotlights new insights into the impact of ozone depletion on surface climate, and climate impacts on ozone.  However, the assessment also reveals that the ozone layer probably will not return to its natural levels – you can’t go home again.

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