Talk by Ralph Cicerone at the Dedication of the Library Exhibit for F. Sherwood Rowland

Dr. Ralph Cicerone, President of the National Academy of Sciences and former UC Irvine Chancellor and Dean of Physical Sciences, gave a talk last night on the dedication of the UCI library exhibit and collection of papers for Prof. F. Sherwood Rowland .  Sherry Rowland, Mario Molina and Paul Crutzen won the Nobel Prize in 1995 for their discovery that Cloro-Floro-Carbon compounds (CFCs) commonly used in air sprays and refrigerants were generating chlorine that acted as a non-consumable catalyst in the ozone layer to destroy ozone that protects us from UV radiation.  This was a very interesting personal account by Ralph Cicerone since he was involved in chlorine research on ozone and was involved with Sherry in the campaign to establish the Montreal Protocol and US laws to get rid of CFCs.  The video of the slide show and talk will appear on the UC Library website in a short time.  The exhibit will be in the library for about six months.  The curated collection of Sherry Rowland contains 312 cartons of papers, photos, and videotapes of interviews.  The event was also the third of 50 events to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of UC Irvine.  Part of the exhibit will be displayed in the lobby of Rowland Hall when the library exhibit is over.

An interesting part was the comments by Ralph Cicerone when asked how the campaign to ban CFCs differed from that on global warming.  Dr. Cicerone pointed out that there were substitutes for CFCs available.  With fossil fuels constituting 85% of our energy, it would be much more difficult to replace them.  Spray deodorants were also only one way to use deodorants.  He also said that modernized nuclear power would also need to be a part of the solution, and that good advances were being made in solar cells.

I would like to point out that while the world looks to the every seven year reports by the IPCC of the the United Nations on the status of global warming research and mitigation efforts and possibilities, they are not specific to each country involved.  Ralph has done an excellent job of getting review committees and reports from the National Academy of Sciences that are specific to the United States for possible mitigation, adaptation, and consequences of global warming.  They are also currently up to date, and now usually free for computer download.

About Dennis SILVERMAN

I am a retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at U C Irvine. For two decades I have been active in learning about energy and the environment, and in reporting on those topics for a decade. For the last four years I have added science policy. Lately, I have been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic of our times.
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