Climate Hope

Mario and the Hole in the Sky is based on the true story of Mario Molina, a Mexican scientist who helped solve a big problem. Molina was worried about a hole in the ozone layer over our planet. The ozone layer provides important protection from the sun’s rays. Molina found that certain chemicals were causing the hole to form, and he worked with governments to ban them. Now the hole in the ozone layer is shrinking.

Elizabeth Rusch wrote the book. She told TIME for Kids that Molina’s story shows “the power of one person who learned something, and what they could do when they shared their knowledge.” For their work, Molina and his colleagues were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995.

Rusch says Molina’s story mirrors the challenges we now face in fighting global warming. “Global climate change can feel really overwhelming, but international cooperation helped fix that problem,” she says. “And it can help with climate change, too.”