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Chlorofluorocarbons (commonly called CFCs or Freon) are a class of industrial chemicals, once frequently used in aerosols but now banned in the U.S., that severely damage Earth’s ozone when released into the atmosphere.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) Quotes in Merchants of Doubt
The Merchants of Doubt quotes below are all either spoken by Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) or refer to Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 4
Quotes
In short, Singer’s story had three major themes: the science is incomplete and uncertain; replacing CFCs will be difficult, dangerous, and expensive; and the scientific community is corrupt and motivated by self-interest and political ideology. The first was true, but the adaptive structure of the Montreal Protocol had accounted for it. The second was baseless. As for the third, considering Singer’s ties to the Reagan administration and the Heritage Foundation, and considering the venues in which he published, this was surely the pot calling the kettle black. And we now know what happened when CFCs were banned. Non-CFC refrigerants are now available that are more energy efficient—due to excellent engineering and stricter efficiency standards—than the materials they replaced, and they aren’t toxic, flammable, or corrosive.
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Chapter 7
Quotes
Sometimes reopening an old debate can serve present purposes. […] In the demonizing of Rachel Carson, free marketeers realized that if you could convince people that an example of successful government regulation wasn’t, in fact, successful—that it was actually a mistake—you could strengthen the argument against regulation in general.
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Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) Term Timeline in Merchants of Doubt
The timeline below shows where the term Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) appears in Merchants of Doubt. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4
...but Johnston’s research led to a wave of studies about how industrial chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) destroy ozone. Congress recognized the danger and immediately started holding hearings about CFCs.
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The Ozone War. Oreskes and Conway describe how aerosol manufacturers conducted their own research on CFCs and funded public relations campaigns to defend them. A U.S. government task force recommended banning...
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Next, a young researcher proved that CFCs were breaking down the ozone layer by discovering chlorine monoxide in the stratosphere. Chlorine monoxide...
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...evidence, but the U.S. sent two groups to Antarctica to investigate further. They discovered that CFCs specifically accelerated ozone breakdown in the Antarctic because of Antarctica’s distinctive strong winds and icy...
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...Regulatory Regime. In 1987, at a UN conference in Montreal, nations agreed to reduce global CFC emissions by half and reconvene every few years to adapt their plans as needed. New...
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...windy as the Antarctic. Still, based on this new research, nations agreed to completely ban CFC production in 1990.
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Constructing a Counternarrative. Oreskes and Conway call the CFC ban “a success story” for science-based environmental regulation. Yet they note that industry, Reagan appointees,...
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...claimed that the ozone hole was first discovered in the 1950s, and he warned that CFC substitutes would be ineffective and dangerous—even though they didn’t exist yet. In fact, after CFCs...
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After the final CFC ban, most policymakers and scientists moved on to other pressing issues, but Fred Singer stayed...
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