ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the role that ecology plays in documenting the problems of acid rain, ozone depletion and global warming. During the 1960s, Gene Likens, F. Herbert Borman and their colleagues traced the biogeochemistry of a northeastern forest, including the development of an annual sulphur budget. In studying both the sulphur cycle and budget in the forested ecosystem, they discovered an accumulated excess of sulphur, but did not describe its negative impacts. Unlike acid rain, ozone depletion affects the entire globe and threatens serious human health and ecosystem problems. The relative success of controls for ozone depletion is especially amazing in light of the dubious track record of environmentalists' prediction of global catastrophes over the decades. The Mediterranean Action Plan (Med) Plan consists of an interconnected set of four components: regional treaties; coordinated research and monitoring; integrated planning; and administrative and budgetary support. Like acid rain, the historical roots of global warming rest in the industrial revolution.
