Thanks to The Orgeonian for recognizing that it only takes one dedicated person to start a ball rolling.   And many thanks to my honorable friend, Rob Bovett, Lincoln County (Oregon) District Attorney, for putting the editorial into a format that could be posted on my site.  Thanks, Rob!!

The Oregonian

EDITORIAL

Friday, April 23, 2010

Nudging Earth in the right direction

The problem seemed too big to solve, the state too small to make a difference.

But 35 years ago, Oregon did not let size matter, not its own or the problem's. Over the protests of a chorus of naysayers, state Sen. Walter F. Brown pushed for the nation's first ban on chlorofluorocarbons in aerosol spray cans, linked to the dangerous thinning of the protective ozone layer in Earth's atmosphere.

Ten years later, a frightening hole that opened up above Antarctica would confirm scientists' worse fears -- and the wisdom of Oregon's move.

Recently, William Moomaw -- a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and a lead writer for the International Panel for Climate Change -- reminded 200 regional leaders of that environmental heritage. "It's an amazing success story," Moomaw said.

Moomaw visited Portland this spring at the invitation of the Metro regional government. He was here to help local officials put their arms around the ferocity and enormity of climate change.

True, global warming is a horrendously complex issue that tends to polarize and paralyze. But there are some relatively small steps that local governments can take, with minimal controversy, to reduce greenhouse gases.

(See box.)

Back in 1975, we should point out, many people thought Oregon was nuts. Critics said the science behind the thinning ozone layer was imperfect; industry would find it hard to replace chlorofluorocarbons; a ban would hurt Oregon's economy; and consumers would be inconvenienced.

And they were. "Oregon fluorocarbon ban spills over into Washington," an April 3, 1977, Tri-City Herald warned. "A new Oregon law aimed at protecting the Earth's ozone layer is forcing southwest Washington residents to learn to live without aerosol hair and deodorant sprays."

Imagine.

But ultimately, state bans pushed industry to reformulate. State bans snowballed into national legislation and an international treaty, the Montreal Protocol, widely credited for repairing Earth's ozone layer.

While Brown pushed for the ban in the Senate, a young representative from Lane County named Ted Kulongoski pushed for it in the House, saying we might as well start here. Because you have to start somewhere.

"We can't be the sole solution," now-Gov. Kulongoski said at the time, "but we can be a leader."

With climate change, once again, the problem seems staggering, and those struggling to confront it feel overmatched. But as Moomaw observed, many people around the country are looking to Oregon to lead the way.

Because we've been there -- and done something not unlike this -- once before.

The author of the ban, Sen. Brown, now 83, said Tuesday that the lesson to take away from the ban's success is that "this is a very, very fragile world." And repairing what seems irreparable is not beyond Oregon's capacity.

Not only can one small state make a difference, sometimes one small state can set a process in motion that makes all the difference on Earth.