"1980." The 80s were all about
big hair, neon, MTV. And then there was this: "Every October a hole appears in the
ozone layer over the south pole." "...hole in the ozone shield is the size
of the continental United States." "The protective ozone layer is
being threatened as never before." "We are all at risk." Scientists warned that humanity was on track
to completely destroy the ozone layer by 2050. Without it ecosystems would collapse, skin cancer rates would skyrocket, and life as we knew it would cease to exist. But today, the ozone layer is healing. In an unprecedented act, the world came together
to prevent an environmental catastrophe. So how did we do it? And what can we learn from it? The ozone layer is a sort of “belt” around
the Earth made up of gaseous molecules. It protects every living thing by absorbing two types of
ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. It’s a powerful shield, but
it’s also fragile. In 1985, scientists discovered a
massive loss of ozone here: right over Antarctica. 40% of the layer had dissipated,
creating a “hole”. Scientists realized the hole formed in the
spring and every year it got worse. This was a wake up call. It wasn't small and far in the future. It was now and way bigger
than anybody ever imagined. That’s Dr. Solomon, an atmospheric chemist. In 1986, she flew to Antarctica,
along with other scientists to investigate the cause of the ozone hole. “Leading the team is Susan Solomon, a young atmospheric chemist
from Boulder, Colorado." You know once you step off the plane in Antarctica, if you've never been there before, your main goal is to get out
without getting frostbite. "Do you want to do the next one?" But what really our goal was to take measurements, not just of ozone, but also of different chemicals
that would help to show why it was going away. Some scientists released balloons in the sky
to take ozone measurements. While others took measurements on the ground. And they all came to the same conclusion. The biggest problem was chlorine from a man-made
compound called Chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. On the ground CFCs aren’t harmful. But once they float up to the stratosphere
the Sun breaks them down into chlorine. They bind with ozone to make
oxygen and chlorine monoxide. Then the loose oxygen atoms
bump the chlorine atom out, freeing it to destroy more ozone molecules. And that causes a chain reaction. The long lifetime of the chlorofluorocarbons
is a big part of the problem. They live anywhere between 50 and 150 years
in our atmosphere so... It means that every year that you use what you use the year before
is almost entirely still there. So it just builds up and builds up exponentially. And back then we used a lot of CFCs. The US had already moved away
from CFCs in aerosol cans. But most of the world hadn’t yet. And they were still in everything from refrigerators
and air conditioners and styrofoam. The entire world needed to make a big change
quickly or we’d face-- Catastrophe. Catastrophe. Unmitigated catastrophe. In 1987, ozone levels had dropped
by 50 percent. This growing threat led to some of the fastest
collective action on climate we've ever seen. So I like to think of it as, there's three
P's that when, they’re met we do very well at addressing environmental problems. So it was personal. It was perceptible and the solutions
were practical. If you've been sunburned, you know that
skin cancer is not a good thing. So everybody understands skin cancer. The personal nature of the threat is huge. The perceptible was easy to do
with satellite measurements. You can just watch it get
completely destroyed and go to zero where there should have been a lot of ozone. And we have practical solutions. It was easy to find substitutes for
chlorofluorocarbons in spray cans that took, you know, less than a year to do. It was a very straightforward switch, And I think the main unifying factor
in all of that is the public. Scientists like Dr. Solomon held
press conferences to inform the public. "I think we will eventually see large scale
depletions of the ozone layer in other latitudes." The ozone hole started showing up
in TV shows and movies. “It’s those damn fluorocarbons, they’ve
been kicking the hell out of the ozone.” “Macaroni, it will burn off.” “Well so will the ozone, eventually.” And all this public awareness put pressure
on leaders around the world to act. “We are here today because we recognize
that urgent action is necessary.” And the Montreal Protocol made it official. It recognized “that world-wide emissions
can significantly deplete the ozone layer and result in adverse effects on human health
and the environment." It listed control measures to reduce ozone
depleting substances in a series of steps. Including help for developing countries who need alternative technology
and substituting products. Every single country eventually
signed the protocol. Making it the only universal treaty
to ever be ratified. And the most successful environmental agreement
in human history. Soon after, the world’s largest CFC producer
began to phase them out. Since the protocol went into effect
on January 1st, 1989 the consumption of ozone-depleting substances including CFCs, plummeted. Today, more than thirty years after
the Montreal Protocol was signed the ozone hole has stopped growing
and is now shrinking. And by 2065 it is expected to
have recovered completely. But there’s more to be done. After the CFC ban we began using
Hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs. HFCs don’t deplete the ozone layer but they
are a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. And it’s the fastest growing one. So in 2016, the Montreal Protocol
was amended to include HFCs and now they are being phased out too. But they are only one part
of a larger issue. "Climate change is already happening,
right here, right now." "Experts say that we have until 2030
to avoid catastrophe." "People are suffering." "People are dying." "Entire ecosystems are collapsing." "Unprecedented and even irreversible changes
are happening to this planet." "It is beyond any doubt that
human activity is to blame." Climate change, our most challenging environmental
problem is still in need of big solutions. So I think people in most parts
of the world, now understand and are concerned about,
the personal impact. They found it to be perceptible. And we are finding practical solutions. It's not true that we can't do it anymore. We need to keep our eye on the ball
on climate change. And if we do we will get the environment
that we demand.
And that's why interdiction and reglementation is more powerfull than market based solutions and "self regulation"...
Wait, I thought we weren't actually supposed to solve problems
Sadly the ozone layer is now under threat from global warming. As the surface temperature of the planet rises the upper stratosphere cools. As a result, over the poles ice crystals attract chlorine molecules the when released destroy ozone. That is why we are now observing a record hole over the Arctic.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/we-may-finally-know-what-caused-that-huge-ozone-hole-in-the-arctic-last-year/ar-AAOGp4o
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/ozone-hole-and-global-warming
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/climateqa/are-the-ozone-hole-and-global-warming-related/
can someone condense
This was before counter-disinformation was so easily monetized. Today there would be a substantial, highly profitable, disinformation 'industry' effectively campaigning against the researchers who identified the ozone depletion problem and what needed to be done about it. Look at how Dr. Fauchi and and others have been attacked during COVID-19. Not because the people attacking Dr Fauchi are right, but mainly because there's big money to be made by preaching total bullsh--t to people willing to read/look at it.
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I'm surprised there aren't more conspiracy theorists using this success story as proof that this was never a problem and only resulted in more government overreach.
what happened was it wasn't political then. neither side pointed fingers with a "AH-HA gotcha!" counter.