hope-for-the-planet:

In the 1980s, scientists concluded that if current trends continued the ozone layer that protects our planet would be nearly destroyed in a couple of decades. 

What followed was a massive international effort to ban or severely reduce use of chlorofluorocarbons–and the reason you probably haven’t heard much about the hole in the ozone layer lately is because those efforts worked. Rather than seeing the ozone layer completely destroyed by 2050, it is instead well on its way to full recovery.

Sometimes it seems impossible that our world could severely limit or halt our reliance on fossil fuels when they are such an ingrained part of modern life. In the 1980s, when scientists started sounding the alarm about a hole in the ozone layer, it seemed similarly impossible that the world would come together and agree to limit their use of chlorofluorocarbons.

It was not easy, but they did it, and we are living in a better world as a direct result of all those who took action to protect our planet from the threat of impending environmental disaster.

“Even with the complications and caveats, the world’s response to the ozone crisis should be seen as an instructive, even inspiring, success story–one that can perhaps inform our response to the climate crisis.”