It’s now accepted that human activity; primarily our reliance on burning fossil fuels is causing climate change and serious environmental issues. Are there any historic examples of our coping with a global environmental problem on this scale? The answer is Yes!
In the mid 1970’s it was discovered that some human-produced chemicals, chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’S) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC’s) were destroying the earth’s ozone layer. With the resulting loss of the ozone layer, came increased incidences of skin cancer and eye cataracts due to an increase in ultraviolet radiation at the earth’s surface.
In response to the looming prospect of increasing ozone depletion, governments of the world came together and created the 1987 Montreal Protocol as a global means of protecting the ozone layer. Signatories agreed to have their 1986 levels of CFC production by the year 2000. In 1989 it was decided the 50% reduction target was inadequate so a new target was agreed on for a total phase-out of all CFC’s in any product by 2010 and all HCFC’s by 2030. Developing poorer countries were given more time than others to achieve this reflecting the greater challenges they faced.
The total amount of ozone depleting man-made compounds peaked in 1994 and has declined ever since. A full recovery of the ozone layer is expected to occur by 2065. Without these actions, the quantity of ozone depleting chemicals in our atmosphere today would be 5 times higher and we have no real idea what this would have meant for us as humans or for the natural world.
It is true that valuable time has been lost over the last 20 years with arguments between rich and poor nations about who should bear the largest costs and responsibilities for carbon reduction, but these kinds of issues too were addressed during the ozone negotiations. The ozone story should give us some hope that we are capable of solving the carbon problem and developing the already available clean alternatives that could drive our economic growth and lifestyle while keeping the earth’s temperature below the 2-degree threshold.
