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Solvable: How We Healed the Earth, and How We Can Do It Again

Online ISBN:
9780226827940
Print ISBN:
9780226827933
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press
Book

Solvable: How We Healed the Earth, and How We Can Do It Again

Susan Solomon
Susan Solomon

Professor

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Published online:
23 January 2025
Published in print:
11 June 2024
Online ISBN:
9780226827940
Print ISBN:
9780226827933
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press

Abstract

We solved planet-threatening problems before, this book argues, and we can do it again. The book's author knows firsthand what those solutions entail. The author first gained international fame as the leader of an expedition to Antarctica in 1986, making discoveries that were key to healing the damaged ozone layer. She saw a path—from scientific and public awareness to political engagement, international agreement, industry involvement, and effective action. The author connects this career-defining triumph to the inside stories of other past environmental victories—against ozone depletion, smog, pesticides, and lead—to extract the essential elements of what makes change possible. The path to success begins when an environmental problem becomes both personal and perceptible to the general public. Lawmakers, diplomats, industries, and international agencies respond to popular momentum, and effective change takes place in tandem with consumer pressure when legislation and regulation yield practical solutions. Healing the planet is a long game won not by fear and panic but by the union of public, political, and regulatory pressure. The book is for anyone who has ever despaired about the climate crisis. It reminds us that doom and gloom get us nowhere, and idealism will only take us so far. The heroes in these stories range from angry mothers to gang members turned social activists, to upset Long Island birdwatchers to iconoclastic scientists (often women) to brilliant legislative craftsmen. The author's authoritative point of view is a reality check, a road map, and a much-needed dose of realism. The book shows us that the problems facing our planet are solvable.

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