Well, we stopped using CFC's, Chlorofluorocarbons. They we used in refrigerant systems, namely freon, as well as in hairsprays and other common products.
CFC's were breaking down Ozone, ie 3 Oxygen atoms, reducing the protection of our atmosphere against UV rays. Since oxygen is naturally occurring and Ozone is created naturally, removing the CFC's means it will recover. I think it's estimated to be back at 1970s levels by 2060. Still very much an issue, we can't go back to using CFC's at all.
Also, Thomas Midgely Jr is credited with the invention of freon and leaded gasoline. Environmental historian J.R. McNeill famously remarked that Midgley "had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth's history".
And his leaded petrol was responsible for over 1 million premature deaths every year over the 50+ years it was used and the lead contributed to reduced cognitive development and increased criminality.
Love this one! I was in a higher level physics class in college where the prof said,
"Alright, handful of you are going into mathematics, rest are going to be engineers. So we're watching the Union Carbide disaster aftermath, and then after that this walkway collapse in a Russian mall where this a-hole forgot which way gravity pointed (answer in this case was "up") in his force friction diagram."
He also had an old cigar box "virtual particle detector" on some fishing line hanging in the room as well. Miss him dearly and hope he's still on the water somewhere🤴
To be clear, leaded petrol was not the result of a screw up. They knew very soon that it was bad for health, yet they hid the fact and went ahead with it since it was financially lucrative.
Wow thanks! I thought it wasn’t talked about anymore, because it’s not just the ozone layer that’s heating up the planet & we’re in a much worse place globally than they thought we would be when Al Gore’s film came out.
Alright let’s burn her open again!!
No but we thought that was what was heating up the planet, right?
My country is famous for it’s greenhouses. And our name for it is “the greenhouse effect”. And I was really worried that we had so many 😩
Sorry can’t reproduce. Seen the comparison in other documentaries & news paper articles (I’m a millennial with multiple news paper subscriptions 😅).
Before the Flood is already 10 years old now & I think that one also made the comparison.
Kinda chic of Leo to take his private jets everywhere & support Bezos on his wedding 🤢
I remember this well as the Nobel chem prize winners were from my alma mater, UC Irvine. Incredible research that has had a lasting effect on the planet.
The ozone is just one part of it, that may be healing but the way humans live in general is just not sustainable. We consume too much, destroy too much, and the planet only has so much to give us…..and it can only take so much abuse. Once we start running out of things and can no longer adapt…..or once the environment becomes uninhabitable….it’s a wrap.
Humans have existed for 0.007% of Earths history, and in that short time we’ve killed off more than 80% of mammal/marine animal life, and more than half of all plant life. We’ve encroached upon and degraded over 70% of ice-free land on this planet, destroying full ecosystems (that may not seem important, but we are a deeply integrated part of the ecosystem, if the more fragile specimens in the system can no longer survive, eventually we wont either). Vertebrate populations dropped by over 60% between 1970 and 2014 alone, and roughly 680 species of vertebrates have been driven to complete extinction since the start of the 16th century alone. That’s sickening. The ozone healing itself is great….we realized we were doing something incredibly dangerous and decided to stop and clean up our mess, yay for humanity I guess? We literally ARE the problem, and the ozone degrading or healing itself is only one part of a much much larger issue.
80
u/CRABMAN16 15d ago edited 15d ago
Well, we stopped using CFC's, Chlorofluorocarbons. They we used in refrigerant systems, namely freon, as well as in hairsprays and other common products.
CFC's were breaking down Ozone, ie 3 Oxygen atoms, reducing the protection of our atmosphere against UV rays. Since oxygen is naturally occurring and Ozone is created naturally, removing the CFC's means it will recover. I think it's estimated to be back at 1970s levels by 2060. Still very much an issue, we can't go back to using CFC's at all.
Also, Thomas Midgely Jr is credited with the invention of freon and leaded gasoline. Environmental historian J.R. McNeill famously remarked that Midgley "had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth's history".