EC238 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Kyoto Protocol, Montreal Protocol, Earth Summit
Document Summary
In this lesson we learn about the montreal protocol, a successful international treaty dealing with the problem of stratospheric ozone depletion caused mainly by chlorofluorocarbons (cfcs). These once commonly used refrigerants contributed to significant ozone reductions throughout the entire stratosphere including a particularly large hole in the ozone layer over antarctica as pictured above. Reductions in the ozone layer lead to increases in uvb radiation which causes skin cancer and agricultural crop damage. We will learn why the features of this particular global environmental problem were able to lead to a successful international treaty and why treaties dealing with the global problems of climate change and biodiversity loss have had less success. This lesson concerns global environmental problems affecting canada. We return briefly to a short section of chapter 1 to review the content about possible causes of climate change and possible responses to this issue.
