Bush ready to Wreck Ozone Layer Treaty

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BUSH READY TO WRECK OZONE LAYER TREATYUS SLIPS IN DEMAND TO DROP BAN ON HARMFUL PESTICIDEBy Geoffrey LeanThe IndependentJuly 20, 2003http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=425893President George Bush is targeting the international treaty to save theozone layer which protects all life on earth from deadly radiation, TheIndependent on Sunday can reveal.New US demands - tabled at a little-noticed meeting in Montreal earlier thismonth - threaten to unravel one of the greatest environmental successstories of the past few decades, causing millions of deaths from cancer.The news comes at a particularly embarrassing time for the Prime Minister,Tony Blair, who pressed the President in their talks in Washington last weekto stop his attempts to sabotage the Kyoto Protocol which sets out tocontrol global warming: one of the few international issues on which theydiffer. Now, instead of heeding Mr Blair, Mr Bush is undermining the ozone treaty aswell, by seeking to perpetuate the use of the most ozone-destructivechemical still employed in developed countries, otherwise soon to be phasedout. Ironically, it was sustained pressure from the Reagan administration,in which Mr Bush's father served as vice-president, that ensured the treatywas adopted in the first place. It has proved such a success thatenvironmentalists have long regarded it as inviolable.The ozone layer - made of a type of oxygen so thinly scattered through theupper atmosphere that, if gathered all together, it would form a ring aroundthe earth no thicker than the sole of a shoe - screens out the sun's harmfulultraviolet rays which would, otherwise, wipe out terrestrial life. As itweakens, more of the rays get through, causing skin cancer and blindnessfrom cataracts. The world was shocked to discover in the 1980s that pollution from man-madechemicals had opened a hole the size of the United States in the layer aboveAntarctica, and had thinned it worldwide. Led by the US, nations moved withunprecedented speed to agree the treaty, called the Montreal Protocol, in1987 - which started the process of phasing out use of the chemicals.The measures have been progressively tightened ever since. Scientists reckonthat they will eventually prevent 2 million cases of cancer a year in the USand Europe alone. But President Bush's new demands threaten to throw theprocess into reverse.They centre on a pesticide, methyl bromide, now the greatest attacker ofozone left in industrialised countries. The US is responsible for a quarterof the world's consumption of the chemical, which has also been linked withincreased prostate cancers in farmers.Under an extension to the Montreal Protocol, agreed in 1997, the pesticideis being gradually phased out and replaced with substitutes; its use in theWest is due to end completely in 2005. Nations are legally allowed to extendthe use of small amounts in "critical" applications, but the US is demandingexemptions far beyond those permitted, for uses ranging from growingstrawberries to tending golf courses.It is also pressing to exploit a loophole in the treaty - allowing the useof the chemical to treat wood packaging - so that, instead of being phasedout, its use would increase threefold.The demands now go to an international conference in Nairobi this autumn.Experts fear that, if agreed, the treaty will begin to fall apart, not leastbecause developing countries - which are following rich nations in phasingout ozone-depleting chemicals - could cease their efforts."The US is reneging on the agreement, and working very, very hard to getother countries to agree," said David Doniger, a former senior US governmentofficial dealing with ozone issues, who now works for the Natural ResourcesDefense Council. "If it succeeds, it threatens to unravel the whole fabricof the treaty." Dr Joe Farman, the Cambridge scientist who discovered the Antarctic ozonehole, added: "This is madness. We do not need this chemical. We do need theozone layer. How stupid can people be?"