How We Saved the Ozone Layer

The Future of Life Award honors those whose overlooked actions have steered humanity from disaster. 2021’s recipients went one step further: they steered all life on Earth away from disaster. The depletion of the ozone hole was a global crisis, involving a family of compounds that had become deeply embedded in the world’s infrastructure, used in everything from hairspray and asthma inhalers to microchip production. In this video, we look at the science behind CFCs, and the work of our 2021 Future of Life Award winners in rallying the globe to identify and regulate them against all odds. Their work show us that the technology we feel we are most reliant upon, and the policy roadblocks that are the most entrenched, can be overcome through a commitment to science, cooperation, communication and innovation. For more information on the 2021 Future of Life Award, please visit: Watch a MinuteEarth video about the lessons we can draw from our 2021 and 2020 Future