The ozone conspiracy.

Conspiracy theorists confronted by international scientific consensus.

It won't be long before we all find out. This ozone depletion thing: It's a fraud, a hoax, dreamed up by a cabal of scheming scientists whose only goal is to protect their research grant bucks. It's all propaganda,

At least that's what some of the more extreme industry spokesmen in the U.S. would have you believe. Established scientific institutions and researchers, on the other hand, are confident that stratospheric ozone depletion is a real threat to our environment and bodies. Last August, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reported record-low global ozone levels for 1992 and 1993. In addition, decreasing stratospheric ozone is linked to increasing surface ultraviolet radiation, according to scientific data cited by Washington, D.C.-based Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International in its CFC phaseout handbook. The international consensus on these issues is so strong that over 120 nations have changed public policy to reflect the changes in the stratosphere.

So why are some public personalities so eager to criticize these recent scientific advances and measures to protect the earth? Probably because they come at a cost. Among the critics are radio talk-show hosts, supply-side economists, and even journalists, who rail against pernicious environmental opportunism. Some hold that government money tends to corrupt science, as they contend it did on the ozone issue, which they see as a calculated lie when them is no evidence regarding ozone depletion. Others object to the expense of responding to an apparently imaginary threat, saying that it is still a matter of debate, so proceed with caution on the science side.

Unfortunately for these non-believers, the ink on the laws and regulations dried long ago. We have a new fact to live with: Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) deplete the ozone layer, which is bad. This fact should be filed by the naysayers and conspiracy theorists somewhere under the "earth no longer flat" category.

But critics probably persist in demagoguing what is for many a volatile issue, Why volatile? Because the CFC phase-out is hitting a lot of American businesses right in the wallet at a time when many are emerging from recessionary troubles. The "Chicken Little" conspiracy theory may sound real good to a building owner who has to squeeze a half-million dollar chiller retrofit into an already over-spent capital budget. But few will be sidetracked by this mirage; the building owners prevailing these days are far-sighted planners and incorrigible realists.