Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 5
Environmental History of Air Pollution
and Protection
Stephen Mosley
Abstract Concerns about air pollution have a long and complex history. Com-
plaints about its effects on human health and the urban environment were
rst
voiced by the inhabitants of ancient Athens and Rome. But urban air quality
worsened considerably during the Industrial Revolution, as the widespread use of
coal in factories in Britain, Germany, the United States and other nations ushered in
an
. Despite the tangible nature of this form of air pollution, early
laws to control it were generally weak and ineffective
'
age of smoke
'
—
regardless of its high socio-
environmental costs
ecting the importance of coal-fuelled steam power to
economic growth. Not until the mid-twentieth century, after major air pollution
episodes such as London
—
re
'
s
'
Great Smog
'
had demonstrated beyond doubt that
polluted air was as harmful to the public
'
s health as polluted water supplies, were
stringent national laws to abate smoke
nally introduced to clear the skies over the
cities of the
rst industrial nations. However, while the citizens of the developed
world now breathe cleaner air, smoke pollution is still a signi
cant environmental
problem in many industrial cities of developing countries today. In terms of their
scale, the effects of coal smoke in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were
largely local and regional. But after the Second World War a number of invisible
threats began to emerge
—
acid rain, photochemical smog, ozone depletion and
climate change
that were transnational and global in character. It often required
the cooperation of scienti
—
c experts across academic and political borders, as well
as new techniques such as computer modelling, to make these new threats
'
to the public. Global environmental problems also required collective political and
legislative action on the part of nations if solutions were to be found. The success of
the Montreal Protocol in phasing out the use of ozone-depleting CFCs stands as a
successful example of international environmental governance. However, it will
need a strong commitment to international cooperation if an effective agreement to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to be reached, particularly as global warming is
a concept that the public (and many politicians) still
'
visible
nd dif
cult to grasp.
