I can only imagine how horrible this must have been for people who had to suffer through this. Saddest part? It could still happen again...all around us!
The Great Smog of 1952
Credit: Keystone/Getty ImagesKeystone/Getty Images
Not all natural disasters are entirely natural. In December 1952, manmade air pollution in London formed into a mass of sooty smog that lingered for four days, wreaking havoc on air quality. The deadly miasma was the result of a high-pressure system that created unnaturally stagnant conditions. Rather than dispersing into the atmosphere as usual, billowing clouds of coal smoke and pollution from factories gathered over the city and refused to budge. The smog reduced visibility in some places to almost zero. Livestock dropped dead of asphyxiation in their pastures, and scores of Londoners came down with bronchitis, pneumonia and other respiratory problems. Many children and elderly people died, their lungs ravaged by inflammation.
Some 4,000 people were killed before the wind finally picked up and blew away the smog, and thousands more may have perished in the weeks and months that followed. Spurred on by the disaster, the British government later instituted the Clean Air Act of 1956, which gave citizens subsidies to convert to cleaner fuels and banned the emission of black coal smoke in certain areas
Someday man is going to have to face the fact that Nature will start fighting back...with a vengeance! I'm thinking we really should start paying attention, ya know?
Coffee out on the really dry patio this morning.
