The Volvo Environment Prize for 1996 was awarded to Dr. James E. Lovelock F.R.S., whose discoveries helped to lay the foundation for subsequent international work on stratospheric ozone depletion and long-range transboundary air pollution. Their use since then has revolutionised our understanding of how potentially harmful pollutants such as dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls, methyl mercury, or pesticide residues, can move in animal and human foodwebs and circulate throughout the biosphere.