Not all past sustainability crises have ended in disaster and tragedy. An impetus for global action can be threats to health, human rights violations, or significant environmental degradation. When a sustainability crisis is recognized early, disconnects are bridged and global communities come together. Working together, negative practices are halted and damage can be reversed.
THE ROAD FROM CFCS TO ELECTRICITY: An important case study in modern environmental history is the development of CFC refrigerators. Initially seeming to be a safe, environmentally friendly refrigeration technology, freon refrigerators caused a huge expansion of the global refrigerator market in the 1930s (6). However, discovery of unanticipated environmental impacts led to global collaboration to regulate CFCs and shift towards more sustainable refrigeration (6). The map below details the development of freon refrigerators, the discovery of their environmental impacts, and the implementation of global policy to move towards sustainable refrigeration.
References: (5) (6) (23)