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With Climate Emergency declarations being rescinded by  councils across the country, our Green Watch team took some time to look behind the headlines and see what the public reaction to these was, bravely entering the .

What emerges amongst the usual conspiracy theories, racism and denials is a trend of claims that climate change is just another in a long line of hoaxes and exaggerations. The examples often given are the Millennium bug, acid rain and the hole in the ozone layer. We thought it was worth a second look at these to see  if all the hype was justified. Were we lied to about the seriousness of the problems? And what lessons can we learn from the past?

Acid Rain

First coined as a term by  “Acid Rain” is chemically precipitation with a pH lower than 5.  Colloquially it’s the process by which sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions, predominantly from the burning of coal in power and industrial processes, causes damage to infrastructure and ecosystems.

Its impacts can be seen in the industrial cities of the UK, where stone facades of buildings have been eaten away.

Other include the acidification of freshwater lakes, making them uninhabitable for fish and other wildlife, and stripping forests of leaves, leaving bare trunks and branches in its wake. Critically these impacts were often apparent in countries other than those responsible for the emissions in the first place. 

As  nearly two decades ago, the discourse on acid rain is being replicated with climate change today. First, deny the problem exists. Next, deny we are the cause. Then finally, decide it’s too expensive to fix.. 

At each stage scientists were able to refute these denials, performingto show the impact of acidification and matching real world pollutant levels.

Sulphur Dioxide reductions were gradually reduced through a reduction in coal use, and technological improvements that brought down stack emissions enabled.

The Millennium Bug

Also known as the  In the years running up to the year 2000 many experts identified that the way dates had been stored in computer systems could cause issues as the year rolled over from 1999-2000. Back when computer memory was expensive and in short supply, programmers saved themselves space by using 2 digits to represent the year, rather than 4, and no one truly knew what would happen when 00 came up at midnight.

What was clear was that a planetary scale experiment was not the way to handle it. If this was to cause a catastrophic failure it could see incubators turn off, planes fall out of the sky, nuclear missiles launching themselves and countless other apocalyptic events.

So across the world systems were tested, adapted, changed and reprogrammed. The precautionary principle in action. Analogous to climate adaptation, we know the world will warm, this will affect weather systems and we can model what these might be - changes in high summer ambients, rainfall patterns, etc. So do we just wait and see? Or do we  our infrastructure now for a worst case scenario? 

The Millennium Bug is often used as an example of overblown fearmongering. Was it? Who really knows.There were some minor issues reported, but the majority of our critical systems were simply not given the chance to fail.

The Hole in The Ozone Layer

The layer of ozone, high in the atmosphere acts as global sunscreen, filtering out UV rays that can cause cancer in animals and humans, and disrupt other biological processes.

In the late 70s, the British Antarctic survey scientist  observed that the layer of atmospheric ozone was thinning especially during Antarctic springs. The link between Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and Ozone depletion had been long known, although denied by DuPont the patent owner of the DFD refrigerant Freon  was the opinion of their Board chair in 1974. 

The rate of depletion turned out to be much faster than the early science suggested and by the mid-eighties global efforts to reduce the use and release of ozone depleting gases were agreed through a treaty. The , is a benchmark in how to agree the need and mechanisms for change, whilst recognising that the phase out would have to vary between developing and developed nations. Recognising the "common but differentiated responsibilities", and creating a fund to support countries to meet their obligations.

Although industry still objected, even after the treaty was signed, they eventually relented, and “CFC free” became marketing for a .

So is there still a hole in the ozone layer?

Well it was never really a hole, more a patchwork of thinner areas, and they still exist, but the rate of depletion in many areas are slowed and research suggests .

The lesson here is that those with a vested interest will do their best to deny and distract. In this case it was the chemicals industry whose business model relied on the continuing use of damaging compounds. Now we have fossil fuel companies, petro-states, and those they , doing their best to maintain the status-quo that enriches them. But given international cooperation, an acceptance of the scientific evidence, and consumer awareness, change is possible.

Each of these examples of evidence based responses to global scale problems, are being weaponised in the comment sections and beyond. How do we combat this spread of misinformation? 

We must be better at communicating successes by sharing best practices to demonstrate change at speed and scale is not only possible, but has already been achieved.