on December the 5th 1952 a nauseating yellow gray fog engulfed London claiming 12,000 lives this wasn't mere Mist it stank of rotting eggs and stretched 30 m wide buses Haled planes were grounded and ambulances were trapped for 5 days the city vanished in the stench and sludge streets slick with a black ooze those who dared ventured out stumbled blindly smudging their faces while while Birds crashed into buildings with visibility zero thieves ran rampant and even indoor shows were cancelled The Great Smoke sent over a 100,000 people to hospitals leaving a grim Legacy of demise and
Decay the causes of this tragedy started long into the past something called PE soup fog became one of the symbols of London in the 19th century nature wasn't to blame for this fog it was caused by people burning coal to heat their homes and run factories in fact London's air started getting Smoky all the way back in the 13th century when people began widely using coal it got worse as the city grew bigger by the 17th century people were already complaining about the dirty air King James I tried to prevent so much coal burning with
new laws but nothing really changed as more factories popped up during the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th centur the problem blew out of proportion the air was full of tiny particles that water clung to and formed dark heavy clouds this mix of smoke and fog became so bad people called it smog Yep this word was invented in London in the early 20th century the smog got so thick sometimes it could last for a whole week and it made people ill some even passed away because of it even though the smog was harmful people didn't
want to stop using coal because it gave them jobs and kept their homes warm so the problem lingered by the 20th century thick fogs were happening less frequently finally because factories started moving away from the city but on that December day in 1952 an anticyclone appeared over London this meant that the cold air near the ground got trapped under warmer air higher up like a lid keeping everything underneath because of this all the smoke from factories cars and home fireplaces couldn't float up in a away like usual instead it clung near the ground mixed with
water in the air and produced an extremely thick dirty fog plus daylight in December is shorter and it was really cold so people had to use even more coal for heating and lighting than they normally did all this led to a disaster it was clear that sulfur particles from the burning coal made the fog yellow and smell like rotten eggs but scientists couldn't figure out why and how these particles turned into sulfuric acid decades later an international team of researchers recreated that scary fog in a lab they Ed samples of air and Atmospheric measurements from
the fog in two large Chinese cities that have high levels of sulfur dioxide in the air just like London during the Great Smoke they learn that the thick dirty air called Haze doesn't form in the same way in London and in China in London's fog smoke from burning coal released two gases sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide these gases mixed with water droplets in the fog which made it harmless at first because the water diluted the harmful chemicals but as the water evaporated and there was nothing to dilute the two dioxides the fog became very acidic
and hazardous to breathe so it damaged people's lungs in present day China things are a little different a third chemical ammonia joins the mix now ammonia which comes from farms and cars helps balance out the acidity of the fog so it's less harmful than London's deadly fog but the scientists found that cutting down on nitrogen dioxide and ammonia could still help China reduce its air quality problems they hope that their Discovery will help both understand London's past fogs and give China ideas for making its air cleaner it could also save the health of millions of
people around the world who are now living in cities with bad air quality after the terrible fog of 1952 everyone realized how serious London's air problem was 4 years later the British authorities created a law called the Clean Air Act to stop something like that from happening again this law banned people from burning Smoky fuels like coal in their homes or in Factory furnaces in some parts of the city to help people adjust the authorities gave them money so that they could switch to cleaner heating options like oil natural gas or electricity it took time
for these changes to make a big difference and sadly another dangerous smog happened in 1962 but the Clean Air Act was a very important first step for protecting the environment and People's Health almost a century before the great smoke another smelly event happened to London the great stink back then people didn't have proper bathrooms or sewers and all the waste from houses and factories went straight into the river temps when the weather got super hot in July and August the water level in the river went down and piles of waste sometimes 6 ft popped up
on the Muddy Banks the smell was so terrible that even Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had to cancel their relaxing Boat Ride On the River the politicians working in the brand new Parliament buildings which were right by the river couldn't handle the smell either the air inside was so terrible that they had to hold handkerchiefs over their noses to breathe they even tried soaking the curtains in chloride of lime hoping it would cover up the horrible odor many londoners believe that the bad air called myasthma caused horrible things like chalera which had already taken the
lives of lots of people engineer Joseph baseli solved the problem as he built a new sewer system that would move all the waste away from the City his sewer system was so welld designed that it still works today even though London has grown to over 8 million people on the other side of the Atlantic in the United States there was also a day when you couldn't see your hand before your face and it was impossible to breathe outside but the reasons for this black Sunday were very different from the Great Smoke of London in 1931
it almost completely stopped raining in the southern Great Plains this drought lasted for nearly 10 years Without Rain the Farms dried up and the soil turned to dust strong winds blew this dry dirt into the air and created huge dust storms these storms called black blizzards made it hard to breathe and see anything people tried to protect themselves by putting Vaseline in their noses wearing masks and sealing their homes but the dust still made many of them sick in 1934 things got even worse it was the driest year in over a thousand years temperatures went
over 100° for weeks and the land became even drier on April 14th 1935 after months of terrible weather the sky finally looked clear and there was barely any wind which was rare for this area people came outside as they were hoping that the worst was finally over when Oklahoma Minister announced that a few good rainstorms would make the land fertile again but unfortunately that morning a cold wind from Canada met warm air in the dtas and started a massive dust storm the storm grew to hundreds of miles wide and thousands of feet tall a sunny
day instantly became completely dark drivers had to hide in their cars and other people went down into basements found refuge in Barns fire stations tornado shelters and under their beds to stay safe the storm didn't stop for hours and took at least 20 Lives Many people couldn't stop stopped coughing and one man went blind the storm was so strong it carried 300,000 tons of dirt across the country and even reached the East Coast that's it for today so hey if you pacified your curiosity then give the video a like and share it with your friends
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