The Inside Story of How the World Closed the Hole in the Ozone Layer

The year is 1985. Ronald Regan is president. Margaret Thatcher is prime minister of the United Kingdom. Michael Jackson, White Snake and George Michael are dominating the billboard charts. Back to the Future is a smash hit at the box office.

And scientists have just discovered a giant hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica.

Scientists were warning that if left unchecked, this hole in the ozone would grow ever larger, letting through harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun that would wreak havoc on human health. Skin cancer rates would skyrocket, as would cataracts. In cities like Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. going outside for just a short period of time in the summer would be dangerous. Meanwhile, the basic ecology of the world’s oceans could change, as plankton which makes up the bottom of the food chain, would die off.

But in two years time, before even Universal Pictures released the sequel to Back to the Future the international community had come together to create a binding international treaty that would lead to the healing of the ozone layer.

That agreement is known as the Montreal Protocol. It is widely considered the world’s most successful global environmental treaty.

In this special episode of Global Dispatches podcast, produced in partnership with the United Nations Foundation, we bring you the inside story of how the world came together to create an internationally binding treaty to protect the ozone layer — and ultimately human health.

You will hear from scientists who discovered the link between Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and ozone depletion; key diplomats and government leaders who pressed for the international regulation of CFCs in 1987; and academics and civil society leaders who explain why this 31-year-old agreement is as relevant today as it was the day it was signed.

The Montreal Protocol is a success of multilateral cooperation. This podcast episode tells its story.

Download this episode to listen later. You can subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify

Interviews: 

Nobel Prize winning chemist Mario Molina

Susan Solomon, atmospheric scientist

David Doniger, National Resources Defense Council

Maria Ivanova, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Melinda Kimble, United Nations Foundation

 

Archival Audio: 

Ronald Reagan

Lee Thomas, former EPA Administrator

Mustafa Tolba, former Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program

This episode is part of a series of episodes, called “Wins for the World” in which we tell the story of how multilateral cooperation tangibly benefited people and the planet. Subscribe today! 

PODCAST: How These “Invisible” Countries May Redraw the World Map

Players from Tibet participate in a soccer tournament for quasi-countries. Credit: CONIFA

Joshua Keating loves maps. His new book Invisible Countries: Journeys to the Edge of Nationhood is all about the borders we see on maps and those we don’t see.

Keating is a longtime foreign affairs journalist and now an editor at Slate. In this book he takes readers to places that are not quite countries. This includes places like Abkhazia, Somaliland, and the Akwesasne nation between New York and Ontario. He makes an argument that we are currently in a period of what he calls “cartographical stasis” — that is, we are in an era in which not many new countries are being created, at least compared to other eras in recent history. Though, he posits, this period may be coming to an end.

I first got wind of Josh’s new book when I read an article he wrote about a soccer tournament for countries that are not quite countries–think of it as the World Cup for quasi countries. And the book kicks off by referencing this tournament. So that is where we begin our conversation.

What We Know About Air Pollution Around the World

Air pollution is a major killer around the globe and one that disproportionately affects low and middle income countries. The World Health Organization estimates that around 7 million people die every year from the air they breathe.

There are two kinds of air pollution.

The first is called ambient air pollution, this is the air we breathe when we are outside. The second is called household air pollution, and this is air pollution driven by the use of dirty burning  stoves inside the home.

The WHO recently released a report about the global burden of air pollution, and what communities around the world are doing to combat it. Here to discuss that report and the challenge of air pollution more broadly is Dr. Maria Neira, director of the department of public health, environment and social determinants of health at the WHO.

We talk through some of the big data and root causes of air pollution and have a longer conversation about global and local strategies to improve air quality around the world.

If you have 20 minutes and want to learn about this under-appreciated global killer, have a listen

Download this episode to listen later. You can subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify or get the Global Dispatches mobile app.

Peace Breaks Out Between Eritrea and Ethiopia

Something truly remarkable in African history and global affairs occurred on June 26 when Eritrean leaders flew to the capitol of Ethiopia for peace talks. This was the first a high level meeting between these erstwhile foes in nearly twenty years, and the government of Ethiopia rolled out the red carpet for the visiting Eritrean dignitaries.

It would appear that after decades of hostility, peace is breaking out between Ethiopia and Eritrea.  This is an incredible turn of events. In the late 1990s,  the two countries fought a brutal war and despite a ceasefire agreement, the two countries remained actively hostile to each other.

That seems to be changing —  and quickly.

On the line with me to discuss this detente between two previously irreconcilable foes is Michael Woldermairam, an Assistant Professor of International Relations and Political Science at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. We discuss the roots of the conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia, and why this easing of tensions appears to be happening now.

If you have 20 minutes and want to learn why this is such a pivotal moment for peace in this part of Africa, then have a listen.

Download this episode to listen later. You can subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify or get the Global Dispatches mobile app.

Why Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson Fights for Climate Justice

Mary Robinson was the first female President of Ireland, serving from 1990 to 1997. She then served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and has since undertaken a variety of roles at the UN system, focusing on human rights, gender equality and, as is the focus of our conversation today: climate justice.

Mary Robinson and I have an extended conversation about what climate justice means and what it entails–and this was a concept, I admit, that I was unaware of until Mary Robinson began to champion it.

We spoke a couple of weeks ago in Yerevan, Armenia, where Mary Robinson was serving as part of the jury pool to select the winner of this year’s Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. This is an honor that was bestowed on a Rohingya human rights lawyer named Kyaw Hla Ang.

Mary Robinson and I had a tight 15 minutes between panel sessions at the conference–and I was glad she made time for this interview. I think you’ll like it.

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The Separation of Families at the Border and Asylum Law in the United States

My guest today, Kari Hong is an assistant professor at the Boston College law school and an expert on US asylum policy and law. As you can imagine, we have an extended conversation about the tragedy unfolding at the Southern US border, where the Trump administration has mandated the separation of migrant children from their parents in order to deter them from claiming asylum and expedite their removal from the country.

This is inhumane, barbaric and as Kari Hong explains, not in compliance with both the laws and tradition around seeking asylum in the United States. She does a good job of putting this new family separation policy in the context and history of how the US has typically handled claims of asylum. And a little more than halfway  through this conversation we get to what I think is the heart of the matter: that separating children from their parents at the border is designed to force parents to enter a guilty plea to a misdemeanor offense which cuts off their ability to claim asylum.
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When I last spoke with my guest today, Kelsey Davenport, the saber rattling between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un had reached a fever pitch. North Korea was launching nuclear and missile tests; the United States was undertaking aggressive military drills, with Donald Trump routinely threatening war via Twitter.

Then this meeting in Singapore happened.

Now things look much different, so I invited Kelsey Davenport back on the show to help explain the significance of this meeting and what we may expect next from this diplomatic opening between the United States and North Korea.

Kelsey Davenport is the Director for Non Proliferation Policy at the Arms Control Association and a longtime analyst of the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

She does a very good job explaining both what happened in Singapore — beyond the optics.  She also offers some helpful analysis to help us understand how this diplomatic process may shake out in the coming months.

If you have 20 minutes and want to learn what comes next in high stakes diplomacy with North Korea then have a listen.

 

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https://www.globaldispatchespodcast.com/5890-2/

A Bold New Idea for UN Reform

I spent the last week of May at a conference in Stockholm called the New Shape Forum. This was an ideas festival and prize competition and workshop all around new ideas for better organizing the world to confront catastrophic global risks.

The Global Challenges Foundation, which convened this, solicited new ideas for global governance and received several thousand ideas from all over the world. Of these submissions, 14 finalists were selected to present their ideas at the New Shape Forum.

And then those of us invited to the conference all got down to work. We identified the ideas we thought we could help refine and spent two days building upon them. At the end of the conference, three of those 14 ideas were selected as winners, and the winning ideas got $600,000 each.

My guest today, Natalie Samarsinghe is one of those winners. She is the executive director of the United Nations Association of the United Kingdom–though she wants to stress that this episode was recorded in her personal capacity, as was the idea she submitted.

She came up with a proposal for a novel kind of UN Reform —  not a reform of the Security Council, or the General Assembly. Rather, it is a proposal for how UN agencies can better design and implement programs and projects around the world.

You can find the other two winning ideas and other finalists at Global Challenges.org

This episode is presented by the Global Challenges Foundation, which recently convened the New Shape Forum in Stockholm. This was a platform where over 200 leading thinkers and experts discussed fresh ideas for improving global governance to tackle the world’s most pressing problems. Next, the Global Challenges Foundation is partnering with the Paris Peace Forum in November to present further developed and more holistic ideas for confronting global catastrophic risks.  Visit GlobalChallenges.org to learn more.

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What India Can Teach Indiana About Fighting Diabetes

The developing world is where some of the more innovative strategies against diseases have been developed. To a certain extent, this is out of necessity — poorer communities have higher burdens of preventable diseases. But now, some interventions designed for the developing world are being deployed to poorer communities in the United States.

On the line to discuss how strategies honed in the developing world can help three poor neighborhoods of the city of Indianapolis, Indiana tackle high rates of diabetes is Amy Israel. She is the global health thought leadership and policy director for the health and pharmaceutical company Lilly which has launched a new pilot based on the “community health worker” model deployed in countries like India.

The “community health worker model” is a strategy for training people of the community to be the first points-of-contact between their neighbors and the health care system. It is used widely in countries like India, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and throughout much of the developing world.

In our conversation, Amy discusses how the pilot project will work with three poorer neighborhoods of Indianapolis, where rates of diabetes are exponentially higher than in wealthier parts of the city and state. We discuss the link between diabetes and poverty and also, more broadly, how health ideas created in the developing world are being applied here in the United States.

Download this episode to listen later. You can subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify or get the Global Dispatches mobile app. 

Kristine McDivitt Tompkins was one of the largest private landowners in the world before she gave it away

Kristine McDivitt Tompkins made history earlier this year when she completed what is said to be the largest ever transfer of land from a private entity to a government.

In a ceremony in Chile with President Michelle Bachelet at her side, Kristine McDivitt Tompkins formally handed over 1 million acres of land of while President Bachelet designated 9 million more acres to create vast new national parks.

This created areas of protected wilderness about the size of Switzerland.

That ceremony was the culmination of decades of work by Kristine and her late husband Doug Tompkins. Kristine was the longtime CEO of the outdoor apparel company Patagonia. Doug, who died in a kayaking accident in 2015, was the co-founder of the clothing companies North Face and Esprit. Together, the created the non-profit Tompkins Conservation.

In this conversation, Kristine Tompkins discusses the origins of her work as a conversationist and as a pioneer of corporate social responsibility. She also describes the process of creating wilderness areas in partnerships with governments.

We caught up while she was in New York to receive an award from the United Nations Environment Program.

Among other things, this is an interesting conversation about the impact of philanthropy in global affairs and conservationism.