ABSTRACT
The period since the middle 1960s has been characterized by a rapid growth of scientific and technical issues in the content of political debate and decision-making, and the consequent growth of new roles for scientists in the political process and in interaction with politicians. 1 To a large extent this development has gone hand in hand with the growth of the environmental movement, and the pervasiveness of environmental, health, and safety issues in the agenda of politics. As this development has evolved, the sophistication and complexities of the questions that have been addressed have increased remarkably, and nowhere is this more clearly seen than in the debates and regulatory actions relating to stratospheric ozone. A subject which until the late 1960s was a rather arcane corner of the atmospheric sciences, of interest to a handful of specialists, suddenly burst upon the political scene and became the subject of voluminous Congressional hearings and government reports.
