<
https://www.salon.com/2023/02/06/mocked-al-gore-as-ozone-man-but-he-was-right-the-whole-time--and-they-knew-it/>
'Before there was climate denial, there was "Ozone Man."
The Republican Party's long, messy divorce from reality began in October 1992,
when President George H.W. Bush derided Al Gore, then the Democratic
vice-presidential nominee, as "Ozone Man," someone who would put us "up to our
necks in owls — and outta work for every American."
Bush was referring to Gore's early warning about the public health threat posed
by growing concentrations of CFCs, the chemical refrigerants used In air
conditioners, which were rapidly degrading the ozone layer that screens the
earth from dangerous UV solar radiation.
Ironically enough, as vice president himself five years earlier Bush had
submitted for Senate ratification the UN's Montreal Protocol, which aimed to
phase out CFC production in response to Gore's concerns. In fact, only a few
months before Bush's dig at Gore, the Bush administration had agreed to
strengthen that very Montreal Protocol, concluding that this would "constitute
a major step forward in protecting public health and the environment from ….
stratospheric ozone depletion."
But the political press allowed Bush license to mock Gore for sounding an alarm
that had been fully conceded — and even acted upon — by his own
administration. That was a leading indicator of the steady deterioration in
media accountability around the accuracy of political debate on environmental
science.'
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
