Air - Environmental Transformations - page 42

3

CHAPTER THREE

Air

Science and the atmosphere

adding lead to petrol could combat the problem
of engine knockin g 1 i n motor vehicles. Midgley's
discovery was so significant that between the 1920s
and 1970s motor vehicles burned 25 trillion litres
of leaded petrol (McNeill, 2000: 62). While the
addition of lead to petrol was good for the
operation of motor vehicles, it resulted in a signifi-
cant spike in levels of lead in the atmosphere. This
lead was able to enter human bloodstreams (where
it is associated with metabolic disorders, hear-
ing difficulties and the stunting of growth and
development in young children) as well as
ecological systems (where its absorption first into
soils, and then plants, can see it entering the
bloodstreams of various animals and causing a
range of metabolic problems) (McNeill, 2000: 62).
Following significant resistance from the car
manufacturing and petroleum industries, it was
not until the 1970s that significant steps were
taken to regulate and eventually eradicate the
presence of lead in petrol.
It was during the 1930s that Midgley laid the
foundations for his second major contribution
to human-atmospheric relations. Again at the
request of General Motors (but this time their
refrigeration division), Midgley turned his
attention to improving the safety of fridges
and cooling devices (McNeill, 2000: 112-113) . 2
Midgley's major contribution in the field of
refrigeration was to realize that the use of the
chemical compounds of freon could improve the

3.1 INTRODUCTION: THOMAS
MIDGLEY AND THE
ULTRAVIOLET CENTURY
When it comes to the large-scale environmental
transformations that are associated with the
Anthropocene it is, perhaps, unfair to single out
individuals when apportioning responsibility for
such changes. While it is evident that certain
nations have disproportionately contributed to
many of the environmental challenges we face
today (see Sandberg and Sandberg, 2010), the idea
that the actions of individuals can affect significant
forms of ecological change appears farfetched.
In relation to the atmosphere and the air that we
breathe, however, one man has made an unusually
significant contribution to its transformation.
Thomas Midgley was an American scientist
who worked at the interface of engineering and
chemistry. Midgley was a highly respected and
successful scientist in his day. He held over a
hundred patents and helped to solve a series of
problems that had baffled mechanical engineers for
years. Despite these successes, in his Something
New Under the Sun , John McNeill (2000: 111)
claims that Midgley '[h]ad more impact on the
atmosphere than any other single organism in
Earth's history'.
Midgley's first major contribution to global
atmospheric affairs came in 1921. While working
for General Motors, Midgley discovered that