Good morning. In the midst of despair for many at the lack of international progress on combating climate change, comes a small but significant story of hope. Last week, scientists from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, published measurements of this year’s ozone hole over Antarctica. It showed the hole continuing to shrink, demonstrating that the ozone layer is recovering. This is a glimmer of hope giving confidence that science and governments can combine in healing the world.

Forty years ago, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey first observed this hole caused by the release of chlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere, chemicals which are used widely in the production of a wide range of goods, from refrigerators to hair spray. The erosion of the ozone layer exposes the Earth to dangerous levels of ultra-violet radiation. Governments moved swiftly and two years later they adopted the Montreal Protocol. This led to a curtailing of these chemicals even if their concentration in the atmosphere would reach their peak some 13 years later. But the Protocol, built on good science and political willpower, means that by the 2060s the ozone hole will be closed and the planet protected.

This achievement needed committed action and long-term vision to solve a problem over many decades. Sir John Houghton, a leading atmospheric physicist, subsequently chaired over one hundred international scientists in producing the first Scientific Assessment Report as part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In contrast to the Montreal Protocol, combatting wider global warming was and still is slow progress, resisting considerable pressure from some governments and fossil fuel advocates. When asked whether he ever despaired his reply was ‘absolutely not — it is a totally solvable problem.’ This was based in his confidence in science but also in his deep Christian faith that God was active in the world and had not given up on it.

For Christians, the Creator God becoming flesh and blood in the baby born in Bethlehem, is an embodiment of hope. This incarnation shows that God is committed long term to the physical world in both the healing of human beings and the environment and that science is a gift to contribute to that. Further the good news of Jesus is that love can change people from selfish greed to generous service.

In a complex world where problems seem so intractable, I am thankful for glimmers of hope, either from science or from the Advent story, to sustain action over the long term and to resist the darkness of despair.