Get your personal protection gear on as we dive into the second of a two-part conversation about the history of the air conditioning with author Eric Dean Wilson. We learn how researchers in Antarctica proved there really was a big hole in the ozone layer and how one Reagan administration official suggested Americans should just wear hats and sunglasses to avoid the worst of the sun’s UV radiation.
Listen to Part 1 of our conversation here.
Get yourself a copy of After Cooling: On Freon, Global Warming, and the Terrible Cost of Comfort.
For more on how the Montreal Protocol came to be, check out Richard Elliot’s Ozone Diplomacy: New Directions in Safeguarding the Planet
Read the Project Drawdown report on CFCs
And if you’re going to get rid of your old A/C, read the EPA’s advice on how to safely dispose of it first.
Guest bio:
Eric Dean Wilson is the author of After Cooling: On Freon, Global Warming, and the Terrible Cost of Comfort. His essays have appeared in Time, Orion, The Baffler, Tin House, and elsewhere. A resident of Flatbush, Brooklyn, he teaches creative writing and American literature at Wagner College.
