Combating Doomism With Hopeful Climate News
By Ariana Thornton ‘24
In this age of hyper-awareness among our generation about the threat of climate change, thinking about the future of our world can become daunting, angering, and quickly turn pessimistic. This describes “climate doomism”—the idea that the world has already lost the battle against climate change and nothing can be done to reverse it on a global scale. But the truth is, there is as much valid scientific information about the reality of climate change as there is about the necessity of climate action. Nihilistic attitudes encourage climate inaction, which will get humanity nowhere; the only option is to stay hopeful and act. These feel-good climate action stories show us that positive change is more than possible.
1. The Inflation Reduction Act
After eighteen months of negotiation, Senate Democrats succeeded in passing the Inflation Reduction Act in August, a monumental bill that will invest $369 billion in climate solutions and environmental justice. The bill puts the United States on a path to 40 percent emissions reduction by 2030. Let’s sum up some of its key components.
The bill will accelerate a clean energy transition that will lower energy costs across the country by:
Investing $60 billion in manufacturing solar panels and other clean energy technologies,
Providing funding for low-income families to electrify their homes, and
Making solar power more accessible and affordable to the average person.
The bill will transition the transportation sector away from fossil fuels by investing:
$3 billion for the U.S. Postal Service to electrify its fleet of more than 217,000 vehicles,
$1 billion for clean school and transit buses, garbage trucks, and other heavy-duty vehicles, prioritizing communities most affected by air pollution, and
$3 billion for installing zero-emissions equipment and technology in portside communities disproportionately affected by toxic air pollution.
In terms of environmental conservation, the bill provides:
$50 million to advance protections for mature and old-growth forests,
$2.6 billion to protect and restore coastal communities and ecosystems, and
$250 million to implement endangered species recovery plans.
The Inflation Reduction Act contains the largest single investment ever made for climate action and is a huge cause for celebration.
2. The Ozone Layer
In the 1980s, scientists warned that by 2050, humanity would completely destroy the ozone layer—a belt of gaseous molecules between the troposphere and stratosphere that protects every living organism from the sun’s lethal ultraviolet rays (“Why You Don’t Hear About the Ozone Layer Anymore,” Vox). Without the ozone layer, ecosystems would collapse, skin cancer rates would skyrocket, and life as we know it would cease to exist. But today, the ozone layer is healing. In an unprecedented act, the world came together to prevent an environmental catastrophe.
In 1985, scientists discovered a massive loss of ozone directly above Antarctica. Forty percent of the layer had dissipated, creating a hole that worsened every spring. Dozens of researchers traveled to Antarctica to take measurements and determine the cause behind this drastic loss of ozone.
The answer: chlorine from a man-made compound called chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. In the 1980s, most of the world was using large amounts of CFCs in appliances ranging from refrigerators to air conditioners. This becomes a problem when CFCs escape into the stratosphere and the sun breaks them down into chlorine. Chlorine binds with ozone to form oxygen and chlorine monoxide, triggering a chemical chain reaction that destroys ozone molecules exponentially.
The growing threat of the disappearance of the ozone layer led to perhaps the fastest global action on climate. Scientists held press conferences to inform the public. The ozone hole began appearing in TV shows and movie scripts. Public awareness consequently pressured world leaders to act on the imminent problem.
Then, the 1987 Montreal Protocol officially recognized that “world-wide emissions of certain substances can significantly deplete…the ozone layer in a manner that is likely to result in adverse effects on human health and the environment.” (“Why You Don’t Hear About the Ozone Layer Anymore,” Vox.) It listed “Control Measures” to reduce ozone-depleting substances in a series of steps. Every single country eventually signed the protocol, making it the only universal treaty ever to be ratified and the most successful environmental agreement in human history. The ozone layer has since been recovering, and by 2065, it is expected to make a complete comeback.
It’s not true that the public can’t solve climate change, that scientists can’t solve climate change, or that world leaders can’t solve climate change. Because we have already solved one global environmental problem before. We have the power and the capability to do it again.
