More pollution

I heard today that lifespans in Beijing are being shortened by about 5.5 years. Apparently, the reason for this is the pollution.

Beijing has five million cars. But is it because of the cars that Beijing is so polluted? Some people think so but there are others who believe it is the result of power stations and factories.

When Britain underwent the Industrial Revolution, the pollution in London grew worse over the years, culminating in the Great Smog of 1952. It was so bad, the city was nicknamed the Big Smoke because of it.

The Great Smog was the worst air pollution event in the history of the UK, causing respiratory problems and premature deaths. It went a long way to bringing in the Clean Air Act of 1956.

This morning I was talking to mum and dad about the smog of their youth and they told me how, when it was really bad, they’d walk along the street with one foot on the top of the kerb and the other in the gutter so they didn’t wander off and get lost. People would join them, making a snake, so they had a better chance of reaching home.

Dad also talked about bus conductors walking in front of their buses carrying a lamp on a stick for the driver to slowly follow.

The causes of the Great Smog were the output of coal fired power stations surrounding London, the exhaust from the new diesel powered buses and people burning coal in their houses. (Incidentally, the buses replaced the, much cleaner, electric trams.)

Somehow, this has been cleaned up. And, though London has 2.6 million registered cars (according to a study by Transport for London carried out in 2012) the air remains fairly clean in the City.

Then there was the 1948 Donora smog. This happened in Pennsylvania and killed 20 people, all of whom died because of respiratory problems. It was clearly an amazing event because there is a Donora Smog Museum, marking its occurrence (clearly one I’ll have to visit next time I’m in Pennsylvania). The event was a driving force behind the American clean air act.

Meanwhile, on Christmas day just gone, Beijing residents were warned to remain indoors as the Air Quality Index climbed to about 400.

The Chinese are very concerned about the pollution and are (it seems) closing down the worst power stations and creating a lottery system for people to get driving licences and buy cars. We’ll see what happens. Maybe we’ll soon be seeing a Chinese Clean Air Act. For the people breathing the air in Beijing, I certainly hope so.

Meanwhile, in Farnham, we had the first Nicktor Night of 2014. For a change, we watched a high spec American movie. It was Body of Lies starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. I’d seen it before but didn’t realise it for about ten minutes and I’d forgotten the ending, so it didn’t really matter.

While enjoyable (and we both enjoyed Leonardo’s performance), it was too long by about 20 minutes. Nicktor gave it 7-8/10.

We also discussed our trip to Marrakech. Nicktor is quite excited about it.