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Social media loves talking about how everything is getting worse. But what’s something that you’ve seen get _better_ in your lifetime?

The hole in the Ozone. Awareness and regulation are working. The hole is the smallest it's been since discovered in the 80s and the UN now projects that under the current regulations the ozone layer will completely regenerate by 2045.

This argument always gives me a feeling of unease: "look, we solved the horse poop in the road problem by switching to cars!" I'm happy for the ozone layer, way less happy for the replacements.

The initial CFC replacements for propellants and refrigerants had extremely high global warming potentials, but we have improved them a lot in years since.

Also, while I will always bemoan the addition of PFAS to refrigerants as a counter to "but we saved the ozone," we do tend to put PFAS in everything else anyway. My local fire dept just spent gazillions replacing pumps, hoses and nozzles when switching away from PFAS foam. This'll cost us.

I can't speak to other industries, but regarding the domestic heat pumps I work on, the PFAS refrigerants (eg R410a which is a blend including PFAS HFC125) are phased out. We moved to R32 a few years back, which is non-PFAS but still has a relatively high GWP.

We're now moving to R290, which is just propane (non-PFAS & low GWP). It's actually thermodynamically better than its predecessors, but the biggest problem I'm having is that the guidance on flammability precautions is unclear.