n types of marine life.The World’s ReactionIn 1973, two scientists from the University of California at Irvine, Mario Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland, first discovered that man-made substances called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) could play a major role in the destruction of stratospheric ozone. (EPA 2000) Since that time there has been much controversy surrounding the subject of ozone depletion. Researchers have struggled to understand the nature and severity of the problem through numerous scientific studies. Nations from all over the world have come together and agreed to establish international industrial regulations in hope of protecting the ozone layer. (EPA 2000)Because of uncertainty about how global environmental systems work, and because the people affected will probably live in circumstances very much different from those of today and may have different values, it is difficult to predict how present-day actions will affect future generations. To project or forecast the human consequences of global change at some point in the relatively distant future, one would need to know at least the following: -the future state of the natural environment -the future of social and economic organization -the values held by the members of future social groups -the proximate effects of global change on those values -the responses that humans will have made in anticipation of global change or in response to ongoing global change (EPA 2000)International Agreements Even the value systems, and technological advancements, of present day nations are extremely different. Nonetheless, efforts to predict and protect are underway. Despite their differences, the international community made significant progress in addressing ozone depletion as a serious global environmental problem. Through the 1985 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, the 1987 Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer, and the 1990 London Amendm...
