{"id":18635,"date":"2024-04-04T23:31:49","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T23:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/04\/richard-benedick-negotiator-of-landmark-ozone-treaty-dies-at-88\/"},"modified":"2024-04-04T23:31:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T23:31:49","slug":"richard-benedick-negotiator-of-landmark-ozone-treaty-dies-at-88","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/04\/richard-benedick-negotiator-of-landmark-ozone-treaty-dies-at-88\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Benedick, Negotiator of Landmark Ozone Treaty, Dies at 88"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/04\/multimedia\/04Benedick--02-qwzf\/04Benedick--02-qwzf-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Richard Benedick, Negotiator of Landmark Ozone Treaty, Dies at 88\" title=\"Richard Benedick, Negotiator of Landmark Ozone Treaty, Dies at 88\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A May 1985 report in the journal Nature was alarming. High above Antarctica, a massive hole had opened in the ozone shield that protects life on earth from the sun\u2019s ultraviolet rays.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The finding confirmed what <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1995\/10\/12\/us\/3-win-nobel-prize-for-work-on-threat-to-ozone.html\" title=\"\">scientists had warned of since the 1970s<\/a>: Atmospheric ozone was being broken down by the wide use of chlorofluorocarbons, chemicals known as CFCs, which were found in aerosol sprays, refrigeration and air conditioning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Just over two years later, dozens of nations meeting in Montreal signed an agreement to significantly reduce CFCs, which the Environmental Protection Agency estimated would prevent 27 million deaths from skin cancers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis is perhaps the most historically significant international environmental agreement,\u201d Richard E. Benedick, the chief United States negotiator, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1987\/09\/17\/world\/dozens-of-nations-reach-agreement-to-protect-ozone.html\" title=\"\">said at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ever since, the Montreal Protocol, as the pact is known, has stood as a milestone of collective action in the face of a planetary environmental threat, as well as a rebuke of the lack of international resolve to tackle the more dire and complex threat of climate change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Benedick, who was a career diplomat in the State Department when the Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987, and who patiently wore down opposition from foreign nations while withstanding powerful internal critics in the Reagan administration, died on March 16 in Falls Church, Va. He was 88.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His daughter, Julianna Benedick, said he had suffered from advanced dementia and that he had been living in a memory care home since 2018.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is no small paradox that a global treaty to address atmospheric pollution was negotiated during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, who was elected as a champion of business and a sworn enemy of government regulations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But support for addressing the threat of CFCs to human health was possible because environmental issues were less bitterly partisan than they would later become, and because U.S. industry, chiefly DuPont, the largest maker of the chemicals, preferred an international treaty to the possibility of more draconian cuts by Congress.<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"imageblock-wrapper\">\n<figure class=\"img-sz-small css-1189og3 e1g7ppur0\" aria-label=\"media\" role=\"group\"><figcaption data-testid=\"photoviewer-children-caption\" class=\"css-1ybnr6m ewdxa0s0\"><span class=\"css-jevhma e13ogyst0\">Mr. Benedick outlined the road to achieving the Montreal Protocol in his 1991 book, \u201cOzone Diplomacy: New Directions in Safeguarding the Planet.\u201d<\/span><span class=\"css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90\"><span class=\"css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0\">Credit&#8230;<\/span><span><span aria-hidden=\"false\">Harvard University Press<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Still, as Mr. Benedick wrote in a 1991 book about the road to a deal, \u201cOzone Diplomacy: New Directions in Safeguarding the Planet,\u201d success was never assured in the nine months in which the treaty was hammered out. \u201cMost observers in and out of government,\u201d he wrote, \u201cbelieved at that time that an agreement on international regulation of CFCs would be impossible to reach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Benedick, described as energetic and dogged by colleagues, was instrumental to the success. \u201cHe was a tenacious guy; he was like a terrier with a bone,\u201d John D. Negroponte, then an assistant secretary of state who was Mr. Benedick\u2019s superior and ally, said in an interview. \u201cThe atmosphere in this town \u2014 it was an uphill fight; I don\u2019t think it would have happened without him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the Reagan administration, leaders of the State Department and the Environmental Protection Administration favored regulating CFCs. But in the middle of the international talks, strong opposition emerged from Donald P. Hodel, the interior secretary, and William R. Graham Jr., the White House science adviser.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Hodel said Americans worrying about skin cancer from ozone loss should not expect more government regulation, but should try \u201cpersonal protection,\u201d namely, hats, sunglasses and sunscreen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His comments, once leaked to the press, were widely mocked, inspiring editorial cartoons of fish and animals \u2014 which are also at risk from ultraviolet rays \u2014 in sunglasses. Environmentalists greeted Mr. Hodel at a news conference with their faces smeared white with sunscreen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Other opposition came from foreign countries, chiefly Japan, the Soviet Union and the European bloc, which argued that the scientific link between CFCs and ozone depletion was not proved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The State Department sent key scientists from the U.S. government\u2019s science agencies to Moscow, Tokyo and Brussels to educate their counterparts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI think it helped get the message across,\u201d Mr. Negroponte said. \u201cDick was the brains behind that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the end, President Reagan came down on the side of Mr. Benedick and the State Department, overruling the anti-regulatory faction in his administration. Among the reasons suggested for the decision was that Mr. Reagan had recently had a cancerous growth removed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Montreal Protocol, which required cutting the use of CFCs by half, was signed by 24 countries in September 1987. It was ratified unanimously the next year by the U.S. Senate. In 1990, the protocol was toughened to eventually phase out CFCs entirely. Today, nearly every country in the world has banned them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Concentrations of long-lived ozone-depleting chemicals in the stratosphere have gradually declined, with the ozone hole above Antarctica expected to heal by the 2060s, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/csl.noaa.gov\/assessments\/ozone\/2022\/executivesummary\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Richard Elliott Benedick was born on May 10, 1935, in the Bronx. His father, Lester L. Benedick, was in the insurance business. His mother, Rose (Katz) Benedick, died while giving birth, and as a result, \u201cHe never liked celebrating his birthday,\u201d Mr. Benedick\u2019s daughter said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Lester Benedick remarried to Jean (Shamsky) Benedick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Richard, raised in the Bronx, earned a bachelor\u2019s degree 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 \u201cIndustrial Finance in Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 1957 he married Hildegard Schulz, whom he met at the International House at Yale. She accompanied Mr. Benedick, then a foreign service officer specializing in economic development in the State Department, to postings in Iran, Pakistan, France and Germany. The couple divorced in 1982.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Benedick\u2019s second marriage, to Helen Freeman, also ended in divorce. Later he had a long-term companion, Irene Federwisch. In addition to his daughter, from his first marriage, he is survived by a son, Andreas Benedick, also from that marriage; a granddaughter; and two great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the time of the Montreal Protocol, Mr. Benedick was deputy assistant secretary of state for environment, health and natural resources and coordinator of population affairs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cRichard was energetic, even passionate,\u201d said William K. Reilly, who was president of the World Wildlife Fund, where Mr. Benedick was a fellow after negotiating the Montreal Protocol. \u201cIt was a career highlight for him and for the United States, a masterful diplomatic achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When he returned to the State Department under President George H.W. Bush, Mr. Benedick attempted to apply ozone diplomacy to the issue of global warming, which scientists had begun to warn was the most perilous environmental threat. A government scientist, James Hansen, told the Senate and the press in 1988 that the evidence that global warming had begun could be detected \u201cwith 99 percent confidence,\u201d which became front-page news.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Reilly, who led the E.P.A. under Mr. Bush, said the politics of the administration did not favor action. Secretary of State James A. Baker III \u201cchose to recuse himself from climate,\u201d Mr. Reilly said. Mr. Bush\u2019s chief of staff, John H. Sununu, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2018\/08\/01\/magazine\/climate-change-losing-earth.html\" title=\"\">vetoed a proposal from the E.P.A<\/a>. to have the president propose a global treaty on carbon emissions. When Mr. Hansen reappeared before the Senate in 1989, the White House <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1989\/05\/09\/science\/white-house-admits-censoring-testimony.html\" title=\"\">censored his testimony<\/a> to inject doubts that human activity caused climate change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Benedick was not a scientist, but he was a great admirer of nature and the outdoors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cHe absolutely loved taking our family to the national parks,\u201d Ms. Benedick, his daughter, said. \u201cHe planned five cross-country trips when we were children in the \u201970s and \u201980s. We\u2019d fly to California and visited pretty much every national park driving east. He\u2019d have us get up at the crack of dawn to watch the sunrise over Yosemite or Bryce or Zion or Monument Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A May 1985 report in the journal Nature was alarming. High above Antarctica, a massive hole had opened in the ozone shield that protects life on earth from the sun\u2019s ultraviolet rays. The finding confirmed what scientists had warned of since the 1970s: Atmospheric ozone was being broken down by the wide use of chlorofluorocarbons, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/04\/multimedia\/04Benedick--02-qwzf\/04Benedick--02-qwzf-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[24105,16,898,24106,24107,20166,24108],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18635"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18637,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18635\/revisions\/18637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}