Preface

The assessments presented in the seven papers published in this journal deal with the effects of ozone depletion on human health and the environment and the consequences of interactions between ozone depletion and global climate change. It is produced in the first instance as a limited edition for governments, via the United Nations Environment Programme. The report is now made more readily available to the scientific community by publication in the scientific literature. It was written by the 33 members and co-authors of the Panel, reviewed by 41 scientists from a number of countries, and is based on the research work by many more colleagues and scientists in many fields.

The assessment is presented here in full. We hope that publication in this scientific journal will give it a wide readership. As editors and panel members, we also hope that it will help keep scientists aware of their involvement in the protection of the environment for all forms of life on Earth.

 

Keith R. Solomon

Janet F. Bornman

Acknowledgements

Cover illustration

We thank Drs Paul Newman and Richard McKenzie for supplying the cover for this issue.

The cover illustrates the extreme levels of UV radiation that could have occurred if CFCs and other compounds had not been regulated by the Montreal Protocol. The figure compares the UV index in October 1975 (top) with corresponding values for this “world avoided” on the right, and our “expected future” on the left in October 2015 and 2055. The UV index is calculated from ozone levels simulated using a coupled chemistry climate model of the atmosphere. The model not only predicts ozone levels, but also changes of atmospheric temperatures and winds. The “world avoided” is simulated using a scenario in which ozone depleting substances (ODSs) increase 3% per year beginning in 1974 (Velders et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 2007, 104, 4814), while the “expected future” is simulated with observed ODS levels to 2006 and then projected decreases of ODSs through the remainder of the century (scenario Ab from WMO, 2003). The simulations are described in Newman et al., Atmos. Chem. Phys., 2009, 9, 2113. The calculation of UVI is for cloudless skies at noon, with no aerosols.

Publication

Publication and multiple copies of this themed issue by the journal Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences was made possible by financial support from:

• Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Sweden

• South China Normal University, China

• EC Integrated Project SCOUT-O3 (contract 505390-GOCE-CT-2004), Greece

• The Japanese Ministry of the Environment, Japan

• National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd. (NIWA), New Zealand

Our thanks to the reviewers

This assessment would not have been possible without the contributions of the following reviewers (in alphabetical order) all of whom made written and/or verbal comments on the content of the papers in this assessment. We thank them for their generous contribution of time and knowledge:

Dr Pedro J. Aphalo; Dr Amy T. Austin; Dr Germar Bernhard; Dr Marianne Berwick; Prof. Wolfgang Bilger; Dr Natalia Chubarova; Dr Thomas P. Coohill; Dr Sandra L. Cooke; Dr Susana Diaz; Prof. Brian Diffey; Prof. Nils Ekelund; Dr Auroop R. Ganguly; Dr Kunshan Gao; Dr W. D. Grant; Dr R. Elizabeth M. Griffin; Prof. Michaela Hegglin; Prof. Dag Hessen; Dr Rainer Hofmann; Dr Marcel A. K. Jansen; Prof. Jennifer Y. King; Dr Margaret Kripke; Prof. G. Kulandaivelu; Dr Shaoshan Li; Prof. Lawrence E. Licht; Dr Kevin K. Newsham; Dr Madan Pal; Dr Barrie M. Peake; Dr Norma D. Searle; Prof. Günther Seckmeyer; Dr Anna Maria Siani; Dr Rajeshwar Sinha; Dr Harry Slaper; Prof. Ruben Sommaruga; Dr J. Richard Soulen; Dr Johannes Stratmann; Dr Åke Strid; Prof. Hugh R. Taylor; Dr Anssi Vähätalo; Dr John Wargent; Dr Ann R. Webb; Prof. Huixiang Xie.

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