[roc]

It didn't? I distinctly remember the same sort of FUD progression with regards to the ozone hole.

  1. It wasn't actually happening/a problem. 
     (It's hippy nonsense. [insert sarcastic comment about saving butterflies])
  2. It was happening, but it was natural, not caused by human activity 
     (The ozone hole grows and shrinks naturally throughout the year! And its been bigger and smaller in the past!)
  3. It was happening, caused by human activity, but there wasn't anything we could do about it 
     (We can't force the other countries to change, and if they won't change it'll keep growing anyway!)

There's really no difference in the playbook between it and global warming. It's just the financial incentives to delay are much stronger with carbon.

Even the "equivalent replacements" for CFCs were widely regarded as overpriced and far worse at the time. (I still hear people bemoan the loss of freon AC to this day.) It's not so different from solar/wind vs fossil fuels.

[abawany]

Much more recently, the Republican candidate running for the US Presidency still expressed skepticism that him using hair spray on his hair in his home had anything to with the ozone hole: http://www.factcheck.org/2016/05/trump-on-hairspray-and-ozon... .

[vkou]

Fair enough - I suppose the magnitude of financial incentives is the major distinction.