Climate Change, Ozone Holes, and Nuclear Bombs In his post,
reflecting on the fleeting chance of a global climate agreement,
Nick writes, "there simply isn't much precedent in human history
for comprehensive global agreement on tough issues." I disagree.
As the Montreal Protocol to prevent the depletion of the ozone
layer and the tattered Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty have
(thus far) proven, when the world has a profitable solution or
nuclear-armed gun to its head, it can agree to do the right
thing. The effort to close the polar ozone holes is an imperfect
but instructive global success story. The ozone hole was caused
by one type of industrial chemical (chlorofluorocarbons) with
limited commercial applications. A profitable replacement
chemical made the shift to a planet with fewer CFCs
comparatively easy. Climate change is vastly more complicated
but there are still ample opportunities for profit from the
reworking of the world economy, which is required to prevent
widespread catastrophe. The world succ