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Why aren’t they in the streets celebrating the recovery of the ozone layer, pursuant to an international treaty negotiated by the Reagan administration that banned CFCs as soon as they were not required any longer in developed countries:
International efforts to control the gases, particularly among developed countries, began to occur in the mid-1980s as new information appeared that strengthened the link between CFCs and the deterioration of stratospheric ozone. This increased the expected benefits of international action.
At the same time, domestic political opposition began to diminish when Du Pont announced they would no longer make CFCs. A reason for Du Pont’s attitude change was that European firms had increased their share of the CFC market, and in response Du Pont had developed CFC substitutes.
Accordingly, since international controls on CFCs provided them a competitive advantage, Du Pont announced that they would no longer make CFCs and the company lobbied the U.S. Congress for international regulation.
Under the 1987 Montreal Protocol, world leaders agreed to phase out CFCs, and eventually the hole in the ozone layer stopped expanding. In 2014, a UN assessment found that the ozone layer is just now starting to heal — and should be back to its 1980 levels by 2050 or so.
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