Did You Know We Fixed the Ozone Layer?
Sharing good news improves help
I’ve been asking pretty much everyone I encounter that question for weeks. I think one person knew. When I was in high school the ozone layer was a big worry. It was on the news often, it was scary.
Scientific American published a video in September that shows clips of some of the reports from the 1980s, and it’s worth watching (it’s about 12 or 13 minutes long - go watch!) It gives the whole story of how scientists discovered the problem, and how they sounded the alarm. It also describes the terrible criticism and many challenges researchers faced just for naming the problem and explaining why it was a problem. Many of those original researchers are interviewed in the video.
One expert says, “we were actually asked to develop a cost analysis for everyone to wear hats and sunglasses when they were outside, rather than stop producing the chemicals that destroyed the ozone layer.” I think we hear similar nonsense regarding our current crisis,—things like windmills presenting such a danger to birds we should just abandon them altogether.
But in the 80s something else happened: Ronald Reagan had skin cancer on his nose, which helped people understand the immediate danger of the disappearing ozone layer.
After that, in 1987, the United Nations had a summit in Montreal, and the Montreal Treaty was born. It’s what’s called a “start-and-strengthen treaty.” It began with a 50% reduction in CFCs, then went on to require actions designed to repair the ozone layer, one piece at a time.
Climate change is different, of course, for many reasons. It’s a bigger problem, with many more pieces, and it involves ending one industry and starting another. One of the experts in the video notes that “You have winners and losers in a way that you didn’t really have in Montreal.”
But, the ozone layer story shows that we can do hard things. Big, seemingly impossible things.
One of the reasons I started this newsletter was to share information about what’s going right—what innovative, smart people and companies are doing to address these enormous problems that seem unsolvable. I want to provide a bit of counterweight to the terrifying news reports.
The climate crisis is serious. Actual human survival is at stake, and I’m not suggesting we make light of the problem. But isn’t it easier to keep making changes when there’s evidence that our efforts are working? Doesn’t a little bit of hope go a long way?
I have thought for years that as individual, I have about as much chance of having an impact on climate change as I have of emptying Lake Michigan with a teaspoon. Combine that with the regular, terrifying reports from scientists, the terrible floods, droughts, fires, hurricanes, and other natural disasters and you have a recipe for hopelessness. Why bother switching to an EV or changing from gas heat to electric? It’s not going to make any difference.
Finding out the ozone layer is healing changes that mindset. Learning that EVs are nearing the point where they’re likely to experience exponential adoption, or that we produced more renewable energy than energy from coal and nuclear beginning in 2022, or that real companies exist that are turning existing products made from carbon, like plastic bottles, into other products—all of those things inspire me metaphorically grab my teaspoon and head to the lakeshore.
If you know someone who feels hopeless when it comes to climate change, tell them about the ozone layer. And share this newsletter with them. Let’s help each other feel hopeful and effect whatever small changes we can.