Richard Benedick, Negotiator of Landmark Ozone Treaty, Dies at 88

A Could 1985 report within the journal Nature was alarming. Excessive above Antarctica, an enormous gap had opened within the ozone defend that protects life on earth from the solar’s ultraviolet rays.

The discovering confirmed what scientists had warned of for the reason that Nineteen Seventies: Atmospheric ozone was being damaged down by the large use of chlorofluorocarbons, chemical compounds referred to as CFCs, which have been present in aerosol sprays, refrigeration and air con.

Simply over two years later, dozens of countries assembly in Montreal signed an settlement to considerably cut back CFCs, which the Environmental Safety Company estimated would forestall 27 million deaths from pores and skin cancers.

“That is maybe essentially the most traditionally vital worldwide environmental settlement,” Richard E. Benedick, the chief United States negotiator, stated on the time.

Ever since, the Montreal Protocol, because the pact is understood, has stood as a milestone of collective motion within the face of a planetary environmental risk, in addition to a rebuke of the dearth of worldwide resolve to deal with the extra dire and complicated risk of local weather change.

Mr. Benedick, who was a profession diplomat within the State Division when the Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987, and who patiently wore down opposition from international nations whereas withstanding highly effective inner critics within the Reagan administration, died on March 16 in Falls Church, Va. He was 88.

His daughter, Julianna Benedick, stated he had suffered from superior dementia and that he had been dwelling in a reminiscence care house since 2018.

It’s no small paradox {that a} world treaty to deal with atmospheric air pollution was negotiated in the course of the presidency of Ronald Reagan, who was elected as a champion of enterprise and a sworn enemy of presidency rules.

However assist for addressing the specter of CFCs to human well being was attainable as a result of environmental points have been much less bitterly partisan than they’d later turn out to be, and since U.S. trade, mainly DuPont, the biggest maker of the chemical compounds, most popular a global treaty to the potential for extra draconian cuts by Congress.

Nonetheless, as Mr. Benedick wrote in a 1991 e book concerning the highway to a deal, “Ozone Diplomacy: New Instructions in Safeguarding the Planet,” success was by no means assured within the 9 months during which the treaty was hammered out. “Most observers out and in of presidency,” he wrote, “believed at the moment that an settlement on worldwide regulation of CFCs can be unattainable to achieve.”

Mr. Benedick, described as energetic and dogged by colleagues, was instrumental to the success. “He was a tenacious man; he was like a terrier with a bone,” John D. Negroponte, then an assistant secretary of state who was Mr. Benedick’s superior and ally, stated in an interview. “The ambiance on this city — it was an uphill battle; I don’t suppose it could have occurred with out him.”

Within the Reagan administration, leaders of the State Division and the Environmental Safety Administration favored regulating CFCs. However in the course of the worldwide talks, sturdy opposition emerged from Donald P. Hodel, the inside secretary, and William R. Graham Jr., the White Home science adviser.

Mr. Hodel stated Individuals worrying about pores and skin most cancers from ozone loss mustn’t count on extra authorities regulation, however ought to strive “private safety,” specifically, hats, sun shades and sunscreen.

His feedback, as soon as leaked to the press, have been extensively mocked, inspiring editorial cartoons of fish and animals — that are additionally in danger from ultraviolet rays — in sun shades. Environmentalists greeted Mr. Hodel at a information convention with their faces smeared white with sunscreen.

Different opposition got here from international international locations, mainly Japan, the Soviet Union and the European bloc, which argued that the scientific hyperlink between CFCs and ozone depletion was not proved.

The State Division despatched key scientists from the U.S. authorities’s science businesses to Moscow, Tokyo and Brussels to teach their counterparts.

“I believe it helped get the message throughout,” Mr. Negroponte stated. “Dick was the brains behind that.”

In the long run, President Reagan got here down on the aspect of Mr. Benedick and the State Division, overruling the anti-regulatory faction in his administration. Among the many causes instructed for the choice was that Mr. Reagan had not too long ago had a cancerous progress eliminated.

The Montreal Protocol, which required reducing using CFCs by half, was signed by 24 international locations in September 1987. It was ratified unanimously the subsequent 12 months by the U.S. Senate. In 1990, the protocol was toughened to ultimately part out CFCs solely. At this time, practically each nation on this planet has banned them.

Concentrations of long-lived ozone-depleting chemical compounds within the stratosphere have progressively declined, with the ozone gap above Antarctica anticipated to heal by the 2060s, based on the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Richard Elliott Benedick was born on Could 10, 1935, within the Bronx. His father, Lester L. Benedick, was within the insurance coverage enterprise. His mom, Rose (Katz) Benedick, died whereas giving beginning, and because of this, “He by no means preferred celebrating his birthday,” Mr. Benedick’s daughter stated.

Lester Benedick remarried to Jean (Shamsky) Benedick.

Richard, raised within the Bronx, earned a bachelor’s diploma in economics from Columbia College, an M.A. in economics from Yale and a Ph.D. from the Harvard Enterprise College, writing a dissertation titled “Industrial Finance in Iran.”

In 1957 he married Hildegard Schulz, whom he met on the Worldwide Home at Yale. She accompanied Mr. Benedick, then a international service officer specializing in financial growth within the State Division, to postings in Iran, Pakistan, France and Germany. The couple divorced in 1982.

Mr. Benedick’s second marriage, to Helen Freeman, additionally led to divorce. Later he had a long-term companion, Irene Federwisch. Along with his daughter, from his first marriage, he’s survived by a son, Andreas Benedick, additionally from that marriage; a granddaughter; and two great-grandchildren.

On the time of the Montreal Protocol, Mr. Benedick was deputy assistant secretary of state for atmosphere, well being and pure sources and coordinator of inhabitants affairs.

“Richard was energetic, even passionate,” stated William Ok. Reilly, who was president of the World Wildlife Fund, the place Mr. Benedick was a fellow after negotiating the Montreal Protocol. “It was a profession spotlight for him and for the US, a masterful diplomatic achievement.”

When he returned to the State Division underneath President George H.W. Bush, Mr. Benedick tried to use ozone diplomacy to the difficulty of world warming, which scientists had begun to warn was essentially the most perilous environmental risk. A authorities scientist, James Hansen, informed the Senate and the press in 1988 that the proof that world warming had begun could possibly be detected “with 99 p.c confidence,” which grew to become front-page information.

Mr. Reilly, who led the E.P.A. underneath Mr. Bush, stated the politics of the administration didn’t favor motion. Secretary of State James A. Baker III “selected to recuse himself from local weather,” Mr. Reilly stated. Mr. Bush’s chief of employees, John H. Sununu, vetoed a proposal from the E.P.A. to have the president suggest a world treaty on carbon emissions. When Mr. Hansen reappeared earlier than the Senate in 1989, the White Home censored his testimony to inject doubts that human exercise brought about local weather change.

Mr. Benedick was not a scientist, however he was an important admirer of nature and the outside.

“He completely cherished taking our household to the nationwide parks,” Ms. Benedick, his daughter, stated. “He deliberate 5 cross-country journeys once we have been youngsters within the ’70s and ’80s. We’d fly to California and visited just about each nationwide park driving east. He’d have us stand up on the first light to observe the dawn over Yosemite or Bryce or Zion or Monument Valley.”