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Article: Chilling evidence: each year, the hole in the southern hemisphere's ozone layer grows, threatening the health -- and ultimately the lives -- of the planet's flora and fauna. In response to the danger, the world's authorities introduced a ban on chloroflurocarbons, or CFCs --industrial ozone-depleting gasses. Far from preventing their use, the ban sparked a black-market trade in CFCs that spans continents. (CFC Smuggling).
- Article from:
- Geographical
- Article date:
- February 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Circle Publishing Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE RICKSHAW RATTLED UNCHALLENGED across the Indian-Nepalese border. Soon after, its driver, Sonata Shahi, disembarked at the nearby bus depot in the Indian town of Jogbani and hid his contraband -- two battered metal cylinders. Inside were neither narcotics or arms, just industrial chemicals, but these chemicals --chloroflurocarbons, or CFCs, are rapidly destroying the planet's ozone layer. Sonata mounted his rickshaw and slipped back over the border to Nepal.
In total he and his colleagues made the cross-border trip 20 times that night on behalf of the area's principle CFC smuggler -- a water storage company. At dawn, the cylinders were loaded onto a bus bound ...