EGN NEWS DESK
A May 1985 report within the journal Nature was alarming. High above Antarctica, an enormous gap had opened within the ozone protect that protects life on earth from the solar’s ultraviolet rays.
The discovering confirmed what scientists had warned of because the Nineteen Seventies: Atmospheric ozone was being damaged down by the huge use of chlorofluorocarbons, chemical compounds referred to as CFCs, which have been present in aerosol sprays, refrigeration and air-con.
Just over two years later, dozens of countries assembly in Montreal signed an settlement to considerably scale back CFCs, which the Environmental Protection Agency estimated would forestall 27 million deaths from pores and skin cancers.
“This is probably probably the most traditionally important worldwide environmental settlement,” Richard E. Benedick, the chief United States negotiator, stated on the time.
Ever since, the Montreal Protocol, because the pact is thought, has stood as a milestone of collective motion within the face of a planetary environmental risk, in addition to a rebuke of the dearth of worldwide resolve to sort out the extra dire and sophisticated risk of local weather change.
Mr. Benedick, who was a profession diplomat within the State Department when the Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987, and who patiently wore down opposition from overseas nations whereas withstanding highly effective inside critics within the Reagan administration, died on March 16 in Falls Church, Va. He was 88.
His daughter, Julianna Benedick, stated he had suffered from superior dementia and that he had been residing in a reminiscence care dwelling since 2018.
It isn’t any small paradox {that a} international treaty to handle atmospheric air pollution was negotiated through the presidency of Ronald Reagan, who was elected as a champion of enterprise and a sworn enemy of presidency laws.
But assist for addressing the specter of CFCs to human well being was attainable as a result of environmental points have been much less bitterly partisan than they might later change into, and since U.S. trade, mainly DuPont, the biggest maker of the chemical compounds, most well-liked a global treaty to the potential for extra draconian cuts by Congress.
Still, as Mr. Benedick wrote in a 1991 guide concerning the street to a deal, “Ozone Diplomacy: New Directions in Safeguarding the Planet,” success was by no means assured within the 9 months during which the treaty was hammered out. “Most observers out and in of presidency,” he wrote, “believed at the moment that an settlement on worldwide regulation of CFCs could be not possible to succeed in.”
Mr. Benedick, described as energetic and dogged by colleagues, was instrumental to the success. “He was a tenacious man; he was like a terrier with a bone,” John D. Negroponte, then an assistant secretary of state who was Mr. Benedick’s superior and ally, stated in an interview. “The environment on this city — it was an uphill struggle; I don’t assume it might have occurred with out him.”
In the Reagan administration, leaders of the State Department and the Environmental Protection Administration favored regulating CFCs. But in the midst of the worldwide talks, sturdy opposition emerged from Donald P. Hodel, the inside secretary, and William R. Graham Jr., the White House science adviser.
Mr. Hodel stated Americans worrying about pores and skin most cancers from ozone loss mustn’t anticipate extra authorities regulation, however ought to strive “private safety,” particularly, hats, sun shades and sunscreen.
His feedback, as soon as leaked to the press, have been extensively mocked, inspiring editorial cartoons of fish and animals — that are additionally in danger from ultraviolet rays — in sun shades. Environmentalists greeted Mr. Hodel at a information convention with their faces smeared white with sunscreen.
Other opposition got here from overseas nations, mainly Japan, the Soviet Union and the European bloc, which argued that the scientific hyperlink between CFCs and ozone depletion was not proved.
The State Department despatched key scientists from the U.S. authorities’s science companies to Moscow, Tokyo and Brussels to coach their counterparts.
“I believe it helped get the message throughout,” Mr. Negroponte stated. “Dick was the brains behind that.”
In the tip, President Reagan got here down on the facet of Mr. Benedick and the State Department, overruling the anti-regulatory faction in his administration. Among the explanations prompt for the choice was that Mr. Reagan had just lately had a cancerous development eliminated.
The Montreal Protocol, which required chopping the usage of CFCs by half, was signed by 24 nations in September 1987. It was ratified unanimously the following yr by the U.S. Senate. In 1990, the protocol was toughened to ultimately part out CFCs completely. Today, practically each nation on the planet has banned them.
Concentrations of long-lived ozone-depleting chemical compounds within the stratosphere have step by step declined, with the ozone gap above Antarctica anticipated to heal by the 2060s, in keeping with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Richard Elliott Benedick was born on May 10, 1935, within the Bronx. His father, Lester L. Benedick, was within the insurance coverage enterprise. His mom, Rose (Katz) Benedick, died whereas giving start, and because of this, “He by no means preferred celebrating his birthday,” Mr. Benedick’s daughter stated.
Lester Benedick remarried to Jean (Shamsky) Benedick.
Richard, raised within the Bronx, earned a bachelor’s diploma in economics from Columbia University, an M.A. in economics from Yale and a Ph.D. from the Harvard Business School, writing a dissertation titled “Industrial Finance in Iran.”
In 1957 he married Hildegard Schulz, whom he met on the International House at Yale. She accompanied Mr. Benedick, then a overseas service officer specializing in financial improvement within the State Department, to postings in Iran, Pakistan, France and Germany. The couple divorced in 1982.
Mr. Benedick’s second marriage, to Helen Freeman, additionally led to divorce. Later he had a long-term companion, Irene Federwisch. In addition to his daughter, from his first marriage, he’s survived by a son, Andreas Benedick, additionally from that marriage; a granddaughter; and two great-grandchildren.
At the time of the Montreal Protocol, Mr. Benedick was deputy assistant secretary of state for atmosphere, well being and pure assets and coordinator of inhabitants affairs.
“Richard was energetic, even passionate,” stated William Ok. Reilly, who was president of the World Wildlife Fund, the place Mr. Benedick was a fellow after negotiating the Montreal Protocol. “It was a profession spotlight for him and for the United States, a masterful diplomatic achievement.”
When he returned to the State Department beneath President George H.W. Bush, Mr. Benedick tried to use ozone diplomacy to the difficulty of world warming, which scientists had begun to warn was probably the most perilous environmental risk. A authorities scientist, James Hansen, advised the Senate and the press in 1988 that the proof that international warming had begun could possibly be detected “with 99 p.c confidence,” which grew to become front-page information.
Mr. Reilly, who led the E.P.A. beneath Mr. Bush, stated the politics of the administration didn’t favor motion. Secretary of State James A. Baker III “selected to recuse himself from local weather,” Mr. Reilly stated. Mr. Bush’s chief of workers, John H. Sununu, vetoed a proposal from the E.P.A. to have the president suggest a worldwide treaty on carbon emissions. When Mr. Hansen reappeared earlier than the Senate in 1989, the White House censored his testimony to inject doubts that human exercise precipitated local weather change.
Mr. Benedick was not a scientist, however he was an excellent admirer of nature and the outside.
“He completely cherished taking our household to the nationwide parks,” Ms. Benedick, his daughter, stated. “He deliberate 5 cross-country journeys once we have been kids within the ’70s and ’80s. We’d fly to California and visited just about each nationwide park driving east. He’d have us stand up on the morning time to look at the dawn over Yosemite or Bryce or Zion or Monument Valley.”
