Reference: Will our air-cons destroy the planet? Bangkok Post, November 1, 2009

Armed with new tools to make such measurements, scientists identified an expansion of the ozone-depleted area over the Antarctic in 1985 and labeled the phenomenon as the ozone hole. Although they did not have historical data for comparison the scientists nevertheless assumed that the ozone depletion they had witnessed was neither natural nor cyclical and therefore it could only be a trend caused by human activity; and soon identified R-12 and R-22 refrigerants as the agents by which human activity depletes ozone. The proposed mechanism is that these refrigerants rise up to the ozone layer where ultra violet radiation removes a chlorine ion and the ion then acts as a catalyst to facilitate the conversion of ozone to oxygen. The Montreal Protocol was hastily adopted and the world was given the very expensive task of phasing out inexpensive, efficient, and non-toxic refrigerants. Meanwhile, the ozone hole that had caused scientists to scare us with skin cancer, coral loss, frog mutations, and ecological horror began to change all by itself in a cyclical pattern that was not in any way responsive to reductions in CFC production and consumption. Ozone is an evanescent substance for it is constantly being formed and destroyed in the natural process of absorbing harmful ultraviolet radiation. The formation of the ozone hole in 1985 was neither a trend nor man-made. It is instead part of a natural and cyclical process over several years in which the amount of ozone in the extreme latitudes rises and falls in cycles. The Montreal Protocol is based on a false premise and bad science and it no longer has a purpose.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand