One scientist caused two environmental disasters and the deaths of millions.
Thomas Midgley Jr. (May 18, 1889 – November 2, 1944) was an American mechanical and chemical engineer. He played a major role in developing leaded gasoline (tetraethyllead) and some of the first chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), better known in the United States by the brand name Freon; both products were later banned from common use due to their harmful impact on human health and the environment.
He was granted more than 100 patents over the course of his career. The New Scientist called him a “one-man environmental disaster”.
