Change does Happen

Change does happen - work does pay off. Today the UN announced that the ozone layer has stopped depleting, and that CFC (chlorofluorocarbons) levels have reduced significantly. This means the ozone layer is beginning to regenerate. The hole over the Antarctic however, has not filled in. However, the overall ozone layer is safe, the UN estimates that the ozone layer will be repaired in about 50 years.
When this was discovered (by a project that was almost defunded), there were deniers and paid scientific opposition. The photo of the hole was the damning evidence that got the world to get tough with industry and consumer and ban the chemicals. How widespread were CFC’s? Used as refrigerants in every single commercial A/C system ever built; they were in every refrigerator, used as propellants for all kinds of sprays and foams for food, health care, cleaning and spray painting. When the global ban was enacted all new refrigerators needed to be redesigned to use the new chemicals, cars that needed new refrigerant have to undergo modifications to use the new chemicals (I owned one that needed a recharge, and it would have cost around $200 to alter the system to use it. I just rolled down the windows). Building managers had to either find a connection to get access to stockpiles of existing CFC*, or find a way to budget for new HVAC equipment. Every can of hairspray, deodorant, shaving cream, spray-on cooking grease, lubricant, cleaning spray that any manufacture produced had to be CFC free.
It was a big change, but the ban was enacted, it was followed, and life moved on. The US and the world has invented and solved its way out of the crisis. Chicago built a central refrigeration plant that serves the downtown core, much like the central steam systems used in other cities.
We can do the same. We can say CO2 is at dangerous levels and DO something about it. We know where it comes from, oil, coal, gas. We can set limits on CO2 emissions and make it stick, we can convince the consumer and industry to invest in other energy sources, and reduce CO2. That is why the deniers and the paid scientific opposition is so strong against climate change and rising to meet it. They KNOW it can be done, the rules can be made, the game can be changed.
Organizations like 350.org, 10:10, and many others show how to convince the individual how begin taking personal responsibility. Just like when as consumers we chose to call the repair man to safely drain our old refrigerator before we put it to the curb, or we choose to buy the products that got on the CFC free bandwagon first, forcing the others to play catch up. Change the market, industry must follow.
It gives me hope that once we begin to phase out dependence on oil, coal and gas that the planet will heal much faster than we expect that by putting the brakes on CO2 emissions now we can reverse the devastation we have already done.
The run-away green house scenario, where temperatures rise high enough that frozen methane at the bottom of the ocean is released and it further accelerates global warming, is still possible, and we haven’t done enough to avoid it. When we reach that point, we’ll be too late – it will be like we are living on an alien planet – one hostile to our form of life.
Change can work, but we need to do it now.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2010/09/17/Ozone-depletion...

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727771.400-zeros-to-heroes-how-w...

http://www.350.org
http://www.1010global.org/us/