A story of how we fixed the ozone hole and how the lessons learnt then can help us (in solving the climate crisis) today.
It’s May, 1985.
US and Soviet diplomats are working through the night to arrange a meeting between President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, who has just become the leader of the Soviet Communist Party.
After decades of cold war, the future looked like it might be a little lighter.
Wham has just become the first Western band to perform in China… In the US, the opening line of the number one song in the charts is “hey, hey, hey, hey”, with Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” propelled to number one when it is featured in a hit movie about that most profound of subjects – some schoolkids in detention.
Posters for “The Goonies” are everywhere too. Norway wins Eurovision with a band called Bobbysocks. And Sidney Sheldon and Danielle Steele sit atop the New York Times bestsellers list.
On May 16, Michael Jordan is named NBA Rookie of the Year… and three British scientists publish a paper announcing they have discovered a hole… in the sky… over Antarctica.
The ozone hole
Have you ever heard of the ozone hole? If you were born after the 1990s, the chances are you might not have. If you were born before, the chances are you have forgotten all about it. But just before the turn of the century, it was on everybody’s lips. The biggest environmental disaster humanity had encountered up to that point.
In our very first audiomentary (audio documentary), Ozone: How to solve an environmental crisis, we tell you all about what caused the ozone hole, how it was discovered and how the world came together to fix it. We also show you how the lessons learnt then can help us (in solving the climate crisis) today.
The documentary features extensive archival footage of the period as well as interviews with scientists who experienced the crisis firsthand, among them:
- Mario Molina and Frank Sherwood Rowland, the scientists who realised the ozone layer was in danger,
- Jonathan Shanklin, the scientist who discovered the ozone hole, and
- Susan Solomon, the scientist who led the Antarctica mission to discover what was causing it.
This is the story of the ozone hole.
You can also listen to the story in a form of a serialised podcast here. In the meantime, subscribe to our Climate Solutions podcast. We’re on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
Discover our other award-winning podcasts here.
