One fact from this saga to boggle the mind: a big reason that the international treaties on ozone-harmful chemicals succeeded was because Ronald Reagan, president at the time, had skin cancer removed from his nose right around the time that studies on ozone layer depletion were coming out.

The issue was low priority for him and his administration, but the fact that he had personally suffered from the effects of excessive UV made it personal for him, and so he eventually pushed for action.

We are still fixing the ozone layer. I am an aerospace engineer and part of a project to test and certify a non-ozone depleting fire extinguishing agent to replace Halon 1301 in commercial aircraft. Although production of Halon ceased in 1993, since then, ALL commercial aircraft have continued to be manufactured using stockpiled Halon. But the stockpile is being depleted, and as of 2014, manufacturers cannot apply for certification of new or derivative aircraft that use Halon fire extinguishing systems.

Terrible title. We haven’t fixed the problem[1], although I agree there is some worthwhile pat-on-the-back for fixing the cause. The ozone hole is still there decades later, and will be there for decades more.

As a New Zealander, we are affected by the extra UV radiation, and strong sunblock can be important.

The effect on NZers by UV should give us more understanding and sympathy for countries that will be drowned by climate change, but even though our government is more proactive than the US, our government still isn’t proactive enough.

[1] NASA website says “Scientists have already seen the first definitive proof of ozone recovery, observing a 20 percent decrease in ozone depletion during the winter months from 2005 to 2016.” “Models predict that the Antarctic ozone layer will mostly recover by 2040.” Also see synthetic image of 2021 hole: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/2021-antarctic-ozo...

This is a good opportunity to remind folks that the same person who invented chlorofluorocarbons also invented leaded gasoline.

Thomas Midgely Jr has been described as having had more adverse impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in earth’s 4.5 billion year history.

I appreciated this article more than I would've assumed. They are right, we tend to focus too much on failures and problems and forget about honoring success.

I’m originally from the Southern Hemisphere. I returned home for a holiday a couple of years ago, and was amazed to be reminded how one’s skin literally tingles in the mid-day Southern sun. I’ve always been told that the hole in the O3 layer is mostly over the South.

Great article, but I disagree with the title. We didn't fix anything, we just stopped destroying it. Nature has proved itself to be much more resilient than anything we are able to engineer.

Although it is an era of information explosion, many people think they have enough channels to obtain information, but in fact, the vast majority can only see what others want you to see, except for a few who are willing to spend energy to dig deeply into information.

This is the key point of the whole article I think, and why anything changed at all:

> DuPont’s patent on CFC technologies had expired.

It is good to celebrate success, but it would be nicer if large industries had a track record of integrity and empathy on decisions that affect humanity negatively.

We didn't fix anything, we just stopped hitting a hammer on it..

What a presumptuous article. What exactly have we "fixed"? We simply stopped destroying it, and nature took care of the rest.

If I stop causing a recurrent issue that is all my own fault anyway, should I go ahead and pat myself on the back?

This is almost akin to a murderer saying that he saved a person by practicing self-control.