Skip to content

Those were the days

It’s easy to forget that it wasn’t that long ago that the United States of America was capable of rational environmental action. But it was, and though it gets little attention, we are reaping the benefits of our past rationality:

It’s the beginning of the end for the Antarctic ozone hole. A new analysis shows that, on average, the hole — which forms every Southern Hemisphere spring, letting in dangerous ultraviolet light — is smaller and appears later in the year than it did in 2000.

The 1987 global treaty called the Montreal Protocol sought to reduce the ozone hole by banning chlorofluorocarbons, chlorine-containing chemicals — used as refrigerants in products such as air conditioners — that accelerated ozone loss in the stratosphere. The study shows that it worked.

“We as a planet have avoided what would have been an environmental catastrophe,” says Susan Solomon, an atmospheric scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and a pioneer in the field of Antarctic ozone loss. “Yay us!”

via Scientific American

If things continue along our present path, the ozone hole will close by 2060. I’ll be dead by then, but it’s nice to know that my kids and their kids (still hoping) won’t have an ozone hole to worry about. All because 29 years ago, the world came together and did the right thing, something it could not have done absent U.S. leadership and involvement. I mean, there was even a Republican president, Saint Ronnie, who was a terrible president but at least capable of listening to scientists.

Republicans were not exactly rational back then, but they were not totally batshit crazy like they are now. So, it’s unlikely that 29 years from now someone at MIT will be saying “Yay us!” about our response to climate change, though I suppose there’s always hope. There are a lot of people who have a lot to answer for. I almost wish there were a hell, so people like Tom Coburn could go there.

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared.