So what really saved the whales? Well, the answer is first, the whaling bans. […] In the face of this enforced shortage of whale oil, lubricant manufacturers and other users of whale oil had to try to find a satisfactory substitute.
Lo and behold, in the 1970s there was a sharp rise in research and development spending on esters. Chemists worked out how to create synthetic alternatives.
(The posted article has this too, and expands on the business side of it.)
The same story told from an environmentalist perspective: https://edconway.substack.com/p/no-kerosene-did-not-save-the-sperm
(The posted article has this too, and expands on the business side of it.)
Yup. Thanks for this context.