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.”
So many people I know who are skeptical about climate change hold up the Ozone Layer crisis as an example of environmental alarmism. “Oh, you don’t hear anything about the hole in the ozone layer anymore, do ya?” as if it was never a big deal, and as if it was a problem that just went away all by itself. Nah, bah, you don’t hear about it anymore, because we took steps to fix the problem. How about we do that again so you assholes can still be hear in 30 years to tell us all how climate change wasn’t that big a deal actually.