This thread has been born 10 years plus too late, the horse has not only bolted out of the barn, but the horse has sired children who have reached maturity!


In the early 80's sceintests were ringing alarm bells, global weather patterns were changing, the 80's witnessed drought conditions , particularly in Africa. Global Warming was becoming an issue. Deforestation of the Amazon was blamed to an extent, emission of greenhouse gases was another.

Ozone levels were decreasing and a hole was "discovered" at the poles, this it was claimed was getting bigger.

If memory serves me correct, Chlorine, a component of refrigerants used in refrigeration was blamed as a cause of the destruction of Ozone. Scare stories about the ice caps at the poles melting and cities being subdued by floods added to public concerns. The increase in the incidence of skin cancers was another fear being bandied by the media.

Concerns about the environmental, backed by sceintific proof culminated in the Montreal Protocol, where it was agreed that refrigerants would be phased out and replaced with alternatives.

The rest is history.......

Were the scientests correct? Has the decrease in ozone stabalised, is the size of hole getting larger? I dont know, is the simple answer.

The million dollar question is.........were they right to have banned the old refrigerants?