Global warming is not the first global environmental threat that humanity is facing. The thinning of the protective ozone layer caused by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) was the first global environmental threat. It led to a concerted global action to ban CFCs by the 1990s to correct the problem. This edition of the podcast considers what lessons can be learned from this environmental problem for dealing with global warming. It suggests that not applying the cautionary principle to the ozone thinning in the 1970s led to the emergence of the so called hole in the ozone layer.

In the second half of the podcast Dr Liza Piper of the University of Alberta explores how the settler societies in Arctic Canada are to a large extent influenced and determined by the climatic conditions during the last stages of the Little Ice Age.

Websites mentioned in this podcast: