How I discovered the ozone hole and saved millions of lives

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Jonathan Shanklin loves data. He's spent over half a century collecting records on everything from comets to rare plants. But there was one dataset that would allow him to quite literally save the world, because it revealed a massive hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica. Jonathan was a junior scientist at the time, so his bosses initially thought he'd made a mistake. But Jonathan knew what the data was telling him. So he persevered. It's now 40 years since the ozone hole first made global headlines, and since politicians and industry came together to ban the use of ozone-destroying chemicals that were widely found in everything from aerosols to refrigerators. Jonathan reflects on how he turned some scrawled numbers into a story that saved countless lives. In 2001, Canadian Jill Heinerth did something that no other person had ever done before - she dived inside an iceberg. No-one knew at the time what would be inside, but as an expert diver and underwater filmmaker Jill had an inkling an iceberg would have plenty of extraordinary caves and crevasses to explore. She persuaded National Geographic magazine to fund an exploratory dive into an enormous iceberg known as B15, and headed off to the Antarctic. Jill quickly discovered that her hunch about the caves was right. It was an experience of awe and wonder - but one that almost took her life. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Anna Lacey Get in touch: [email protected] or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707 (Photo: Jonathan Shanklin. Credit: Jonathan Shanklin)