Saving the Ozone Layer (from "1980s Environmentalism")

In the mid 1970s, scientists discovered a global problem that was only getting bigger. It turned out there was a hole in the ozone layer caused by CFCs, or chlorofluorocarbons, which were commonly found in aerosol items like hairspray, as well as refrigerants and foams. The news alarmed the American public. And by the 1980s, activists called for a global ban on CFCs. The question, though, was what the Reagan administration was willing to do about it. David Doniger is the Senior Strategic Director for the Climate and Clean Energy Program at the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC). In the 1980s, he was an attorney with the NRDC, fighting for a global phaseout of CFCs. He tells Brian about what environmentalists were up against and how the lessons of saving the ozone layer can apply to the crisis of climate change.