The Montreal Protocol
On September 16th 1987, the Montreal Protocol was signed. It was designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion like CFCs. To this day, the hole created by CFCs is still not fully recovered but the recovery is ongoing and the pace encouraging. The story behind this protocol is a testament to how science and democracy can work together to understand unintended consequences of our technological powers—and act politically despite powerful opposing forces—before irreversible damage occurs.
Source: Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2010), 45.
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Full disclosure, I may occasionally borrow a sentence from Will Durant's Story of Civilization. I absolutely love that collection!