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The story of an environmental crisis the world fixed · Apple News Today

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  Duarte Geraldino, Narrating: Good morning! It's Friday, April 22nd. I'm Duarte Geraldino. Shumita Basu is off. This is "Apple News Today." Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
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  Today is Earth Day, and this year, it's in the shadow of a steady flow of research that essentially shows climate change is getting worse. And that's why I want to point you towards what looks like a small sign of hope. "Vox" examines a giant environmental crisis that the world actually did solve, and not that long ago. It shows what happens when ordinary people, scientists and politicians, truly tackle a global problem.
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  This article is about the ozone layer. In the 80s, scientists warned, unless it was dealt with, we'd have greater cancer risk and many plants and animals would be devastated. In that era, ozone depletion was all over the media…
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  Unidentified Speaker: Every October a hole appears in the ozone layer over the South Pole.
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  Unidentified Speaker 2: They're still not exactly sure what causes the hole.
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  Unidentified Speaker 3: As long as this persists, ozone will continue to be lost.
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  Unidentified Speaker 4: Some scientists think the ozone layer is weakened by chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons, known more simply as "CFCs."
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  These chemicals were used in products including hairspray and refrigerators, that's to say, they were everywhere. The problem looked too big to fix.
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  So far, this may sound a lot like the climate change issue. Swap carbon emissions for CFCs and the story's practically the same. But the fight to save the ozone layer went differently. The scientists, they were heard. People boycotted products with CFCs, and politicians took action: they passed an international treaty to phase out CFCs. There was little partisan divide. In the U.S., the treaty passed the Senate by unanimous vote. The late George Shultz was President Reagan's secretary of state at the time. A few years ago, he spoke at Stanford about the impact of this environmental push…
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  George Shultz: It really worked. It was astonishing. It was a lesson again in how to work with other people to get something accomplished.
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  The ozone layer is now on a path to recovery. You barely even hear about it. This a green win.
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  "Vox" points out, this is not a perfect blueprint for dealing with climate change. There were ready substitutes for CFCs at the time. It's been more complicated to expand green alternatives to fossil fuels, but the ozone layer story shows that massive environmental problems can be solved. If reversing climate change feels hopeless now, remember, people once said that about the ozone layer too. And they were wrong.
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  The Grand Old Party's Elephant is trying to stomp Mickey Mouse. Florida's GOP-controlled legislature passed a bill that would strip Disney of the special self-governing status it has over its property there. This move, it intensifies Governor Ron DeSantis's attack on this company for opposing Florida's law that critics call "Don't Say Gay." It blocks teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity in K-through-3 classrooms.
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  CNBC looks at how this new move against Disney could leave taxpayers with more than a billion dollars in bond debt. Let me connect the dots for you. Disney has a special arrangement on its sprawling parks complex in Florida. This special district gives Disney regulatory control. This means it's responsible for paying for services like fire fighting, water, sewage, and utilities.
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  If this district goes away, those bills could transfer to local taxpayers, and filings show Disney's special district has more than a billion dollars in bond liabilities. That debt could also land in the lap of local people. Supporters of the bill say there may be ways to implement it that don't hurt taxpayers, but one local legislator says people in his area could be on the hook for new debt that amounts to about $1,000 per taxpayer.
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  A federal judge just temporarily blocked a law in Kentucky that effectively bans abortions there. This is a partial victory for abortion advocates, but, they say, depending on future Supreme Court action, more than half of states are certain or likely to try to ban abortions. In the past few months, a wave of states passed legislation either limiting access to the procedure or downright criminalizing it, and soon, the Supreme Court will announce a decision in "Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization." That case could substantially weaken or even overturn "Roe v. Wade." With that reality on the horizon, a covert network of activists is preparing.
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  Jessica Bruder: Because there are so many restrictions already, there already is a really powerful and hardworking and, unfortunately, chronically under-resourced grassroots helping women get access to this sort of care.
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  That's Jessica Bruder. In "The Atlantic," she reports on the abortion underground. These are people helping others access this procedure, even if they have to work around the law. As Jessica explains, this network always existed. And despite narratives that we hear today, it didn't always cut along religious lines.
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  Jessica Bruder: So, the clergy consultation service started popping up in the late sixties and into the seventies and ended up connecting what is estimated to be hundreds of thousands of women with access to safe abortions. And they weren't talking a lot about morality of abortion and ideology and abstraction. Rather, they were focusing on this idea that, as pastors, they had an obligation to help women.
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  Today, activists provide all kinds of support to women seeking abortions from helping them to pay for the procedures to housing and legal advice. And because some states are even cracking down on the folks who help people get abortions, there are training sessions for those who want to assist without incriminating themselves in the process. Jessica told us about one training session she observed where the instructor was talking about abortion pills…
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  Jessica Bruder: And she made the argument that it is legal to share information and that you can do that without giving somebody specific medical advice. So she was urging people to pass along information about the pills in a very general way, saying this is what studies have shown, this is what one can do, rather than, hey, go to this pharmacy just across the border.
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  You can hear my full conversation with Jessica Bruder on this weekend's episode of "Apple News In Conversation." We talk about how this abortion activist network first formed in the pre-Roe era and how people have always found ways to have abortions, regardless of the medical technology available or the laws that were in place. You can find the show by searching for "Apple News In Conversation" within the Apple News or Podcast apps.
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  Finally: you need a vacation? Well, get in line, because after two years of the pandemic tons of Americans are eager to start traveling again. "The Washington Post" calls it "the summer of revenge travel," but it's gonna cost ya. Prices for nearly everything are way up: flights, hotels and, of course, fuel. This is creating the perfect storm for vacation plans that could break the bank, whether you fly or drive.
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  The people who might get hit the hardest, by the way, are folks who wait until the last minute to book. While that once might have been an okay strategy, these days, there are few last-minute deals.
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  Check out the article to see how some eager travelers are adjusting their plans. A lot of folks plan to travel domestically, visit the national parks or just head out to the local ballpark to catch a ball game. As one woman in this piece says, "go out, explore, see cool things, eat good food and remember to always appreciate what we have."
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  You can find all those stories and more in the Apple News app. And before I sign off, I want to let you know that this is one of my last shows. I've had such a wonderful time launching and hosting "Apple News Today." I really enjoyed waking up with you for the past two years. I'm leaving the show to complete some other projects and explore new opportunities. Shumita Basu, she's going to be back with you on Monday.
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