Nobel prize winner will discuss man's impact on the atmosphere Aug. 12

Contact: Kay Roybal, (505) 665-0582 (99-112)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Aug. 9, 1999 -- Nobel laureate F. Sherwood Rowland, who with a colleague discovered that chlorofluorocarbons destroyed ozone molecules in the earth's atmosphere faster than they could be replenished, will speak at Los Alamos National Laboratory August 12. Rowland will speak at a Director's Colloquium, scheduled for 1:10 pm in the main auditorium, which will be open to the public. Rowland's presentation also will be broadcast on LabNet.

Rowland, who is Donald Bren Research Professor of Chemistry and Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine, will describe changes in the chemical composition of the atmosphere and possible future impacts. Increasing concentrations of trace gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane underlie the phenomenon of global warming, while smog-forming reactions are intensifying in growing cities worldwide.

A specialist in atmospheric chemistry and radiochemistry, Rowland shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the formation and decomposition of ozone. He and colleague Mario Molina were the first scientists to warn that CFCs released into the atmosphere were depleting the earth's critical ozone layer.

Research on CFCs and stratospheric ozone led in the 1970s to legislation in the United States, Canada and Scandinavia regulating the manufacture and use of CFCs as aerosol propellants. In 1987, the Montreal Protocol of the United Nations Environment Program became
the first international agreement for controlling environmental damage to the global atmosphere by requiring reductions in CFC manufacture and release.

"Almost all the problems mankind has produced in the atmosphere have a connection with humanity's strong drive for a better standard of living," Rowland said. "The way in which the developed nations have attained an improved standard of living during the 20th century has almost always involved the use of energy at a much more rapid rate.

"We've got to start asking ourselves some very basic questions, starting with: How do we go from our rapid acceleration of energy uses to an approach that leads to less damage to the environment?" he added.

Rowland also has been investigating the impacts on the atmosphere of methane gas and other hydrocarbons. The global methane concentration has more than doubled in the past two centuries. Methane absorbs terrestrial infrared radiation, and increases in methane concentration contribute to the "greenhouse effect," the gradual warming of the earth's surface.

Rowland is foreign secretary of the National Academy of Sciences. He has previously taught at Princeton University and the University of Kansas. He earned his bachelor's degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and his master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago. He has co-authored more than 350 scientific publications in atmospheric chemistry, radiochemistry and chemical kinetics.

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