We’ve already shown we can tackle global environmental problems by working together: and we can do it again

A highly recommendable article in Scientific American, “The world solved acid rain. We can solve climate change”, reminds all the fatalists who say we can’t abandon fossil fuels in a five-year period that we have already shown ourselves capable of solving environmental problems as serious as the hole in the ozone layer or acid rain simply by taking the appropriate measures in similar timeframes.

The article reminded me how, during the 1990s, acid rain became a major environmental problem, killing off forests, crumbling the stone work of centuries-old churches and destroying statues, and how some countries were hit with such high levels of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions that when combined with rainwater became corrosive sulfuric or nitric acid.

What happened? The right measures were taken and international treaties were signed to ensure compliance. Were they different times? No, it was very recently. In just a few years, Europe was able to reduce its emissions by 84% and the United States by 90%, and the problem simply became much less important, eventually falling off the international agenda. The same thing happened with the hole in the ozone layer: we had to listen to thousands of fatalists saying that it was impossible to…