Category: News

Current issues

Chlorine gas (used on Syrians) depletes the Ozone layer, no Vienna Convention for the militaries? No cancers for them?

Reading about repeated use of chlorine based chemical weapons on Syrians over the weekend I wonder what the global military is doing. I understand they do not give a damn about civilians but do they hear that there is something like the Vienna Convention for the protection of the Ozone layer? Chlor is one of the substances greatly jeopardising its existence and if we do not mind that affected people get their corneas inflamed and can lose their vision as I did or damage their lungs, we should at least think about the cancers, affecting the Earth populations due to the Ozone layers holes. Montreal Protocol control measures clearly state the phasing out of such substances by 2010/2015. We are now in 2018 and as if such international guidelines were non-existent for the military industrial complexes:
Summary of Montreal Protocol control measures
Ozone depleting substances Developed countries Developing countries
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) Phased out end of 1995a Phased out end of 2010
Halons Phased out end of 1993 Phased out end of 2010
CCl4(Carbon tetrachloride)
Phased out end of 1995a Phased out end of 2010
CH3CCl3 (Methyl chloroform)
Phased out end of 1995a Phased out end of 2015
Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) Freeze from beginning of 1996b
35% reduction by 2004
75% reduction by 2010
90% reduction by 2015
Total phase out by 2020c Freeze in 2013 at a base level calculated as
the average of 2009 and 2010 consumption levels
10% reduction by 2015
35% reduction by 2020
67.5% reduction by 2025
Total phase out by 2030d
Hydrobromofluorocarbons (HBFCs) Phased out end of 1995 Phased out end of 1995
Methyl bromide (CH3Br)
(horticultural uses) Freeze in 1995 at 1991 base levele
25% reduction by 1999
50% reduction by 2001
70% reduction by 2003
Phased out end of 2005 Freeze in 2002 at average 1995-1998 base levele
20% reduction by 2005
Phased out end of 2015
Bromochloromethane (CH2BrCl) Phased out end of 2002 Phased out end of 2002
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) 10% reduction by 2019f
30% reduction by 2024
70% reduction by 2029
80% reduction by 2034
85% reduction by 2036 Freeze in 2024g
10% reduction by 2029
30% reduction by 2035
50% reduction by 2040
80% reduction by 2045