Hi Kate --
David's answer was so thorough I first thought there was nothing more
to say, but then I realized there are a few additional important
things -- that have the additional benefit of being pretty easy to find.
(You're probably aware that in doing the book I accumulated about 20
shelf-feet of archival material, including the complete files of four
centrally involved individuals, which I donated to the Harvard
Environmental Science and Public Policy archival collection. When
last I checked, it had been cataloged and was still accessible in the
basement of Cabot Science Library. There's much more good stuff there
than I was able to use in my account, but I presume your student is
not interested in doing a research trip to Cambridge ...)
As David said, Dotto and Schiff is fabulous, although it's only about
the couple of years slug-fest, mostly among scientists and
domestically in the US, that that led to the early aerosol bans.
But there are a few other great sources from the period that are often
overlooked by folks approaching the issue from the social science and
policy side -- the most useful ones are published reflections or
syntheses by participants in the scientific or policy debates of the
period, or both, which do a great job of recollecting and/or
reconstructing debates and controversies as they stood at early stages
of the issue.
It's worth checking through the sources for Chapters 2 and 3 in my
book, which cover the relevant period (plus early sections of chapters
4 and 5), but the few that come to mind immediately are the following:
- Carroll Bastian's 1982 chapter in the CRC Press volume
- A few scientific review papers by key figures that include lots of
historical detail about past controversies and how perception of
processes and risks changed over time, e.g.:
- Three science review articles in the Annual Review of Physical
Chemistry -- by Harold Johnston in 1984 and 1992, and by Sherry
Rowland in 1991.
- Lovelock and Simmonds, in the "Fluorstrat" conference proceedings,
1978 -- plus some interesting reflections in Lovelock's book "Ages of
Gaia" and his eccentric "epilog" to the 1982 CRC Press volume.
- and for a contrasting perspective with the same long memory, Joe
Glas's chapter in the Ausubel and Sladovich NRC volume, Technology and
the Environment.
Further from primary, but still data-rich contemporary accounts with
lots of interviews are Paul Brodeur's two long New Yorker articles, in
1975 and 1986
I hope this helps.
all the best,
Ted
Quoting Kate O'Neill <[email protected]>:
Hi all,
I am currently working with an undergrad on his senior thesis, part
of which looks at actual risks, risk perceptions and science policy
interactions around impacts of ozone layer depletion prior to
national regulations in the US and international negotiations. I am
of course getting him to read Parson's Protecting the Ozone Layer.
But does anyone have any contemporary (to the 70s/80s) or historical
accounts of that time?
I was kind of suprised to learn that if we'd not done anything about
CFC use, we wouldn't have had to worry about GHG emissions very much
as the earth would have been fried in about 50 years from now. Given
that that issue is now relatively settled, we don't often think
back. See http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/world_avoided.html
Anyway, any and all suggestions welcome, and I will compile and send
to the list. (and I'm about to do the population video list, a
request I sent out months ago :)
best,
Kate
UC Berkeley
________________________________________
Edward A. Parson
Joseph L. Sax Collegiate Professor of Law, Professor of Natural
Resources & Environment
University of Michigan
432 Hutchins Hall
625 South State Street
Ann Arbor MI 48109-1215
Tel: 734-763-6133
Fax: 734-763-9375
[email protected]
www.tedparson.com
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