The Latest News From the Ozone Layer
by Donella Meadows
– September 2, 1999 –
Twenty-five years ago there appeared two obscure scientific papers that rocked the industrial world. One of them, by Richard Stolarski and Ralph Cicerone, said that if chlorine atoms ever got wafted high up into the stratosphere, they could eat up the ozone layer. The second, by Mario Molina and Sherwood Rowland (who got the [...]
Ice Cracks in Antarctica, Delegates Dither in Berlin
By Donella Meadows
–April 13, 1995–
Stunning news from Antarctica arrived last month just before the world’s nations gathered in Berlin to discuss global climate change. It was as if the South Pole had reared its hoary head again, as it did ten years ago, to galvanize an international agreement.
What happened ten years ago was the discovery of the enormous ozone hole. [...]
Spinning the Environmental Good News
By Donella Meadows
–January 27, 1994–
Contrary to popular opinion, sometimes there’s good news about the environment — lately there’s been quite a spate of it. Some has come about through luck, some through the wisdom and forbearance of the human race, and some is completely unexplained, which leaves plenty of room for commentators to spin the environmental news, like any news, [...]
How the Ozone Story Became a Volcano Story
By Donella Meadows
–September 1, 1993–
F. Sherwood Rowland was surprised by all the volcano questions. As a distinguished atmospheric chemist, the discoverer of the cause of the ozone hole, he gives regular public presentations on how the ozone layer works and why it is being depleted. Recently his audiences have been asking, sometimes with confusion, sometimes with hostility: Don’t volcanoes cause [...]
Saving the Planet Starts with Doing Your Homework
By Donella Meadows
–April 29, 1993–
Kids who want to do something to help the environment get a lot of advice from the media, much of it wrong.
For example, in a Wall Street Journal column Jonathan Adler of the Competitive Enterprise Institute rightfully complains about a Florida TV program that warns children against ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in spray cans and in those [...]
