Luke Kwon
The Killer Fog of '52
By: John Nielson
Summary:
First I'd like to start off by saying that this article is not the same one as the one Mrs. Deluca showed us. This fog was in London. This happened in 1952. This fog was much worse then the one in PA. First off the fog came one day. It doesn't explain how or why. It says it was so dark you couldn't see. Then it got cold so people started lighting fires to keep warm which made it worse. A wind suddenly took it away. By the end 12,000 people died.
Reaction:
This article was very surprising to me. I never thought that these killer smogs could kill so many if given the opportunity. This really gave me a different view on what pollution could cause. I can't believe some kind of thing like this could happen. The fact that this happens should make the governments of our world do something about this kind of thing.
Questions:
1. Do you think this could happen around here?
2. Is anything being done about this kind of pollution if so how?
3. Is this a big problem now?
4.
Opinion:
ReplyDeleteIf you read carefully, it actually says that the smog started with the same thing it got worse with- residential coal fires and a thermal inversion. I wasn't really surprised with this happening in London, given that there is a lot of fog to begin with (I think, please correct me if I'm wrong), it doesn't surprise me that a pre-environmentalism London had this problem at least once. The scale was pretty horrific, though. This was an awesome tie in to exactly what we are learning in class, so kudos!
Answer to serious question:
2. If you consider people burning wood instead of coal, then yes, but really this pollution will happen on deadly scales only when there is a perfect storm of environmental disasters. First, it needs to be a heavily industrializing town or city, it needs a lot of manufacturing plants, but that means that the town can neither be too rural nor too urban. A coal town in the 30's is prime example of this. Second, there needs to be thermal inversions, which are uncommon in most places.
Letter to the ministry of silly wal-, erm... questions:
Fog is just water vapor, so technically, yes fog is a cloud, just one that forms near the ground. Smog, coined in London during the industrial revolution, is a combination of the words smoke and fog. So if you consider clouds in the sky that have lethal amounts toxins still to be clouds, then smog is a cloud as well.
Opinion:
ReplyDeleteHow relevant! When we heard about the event we learned in class I thought about how i would feel if that was my city. I can't even imagine being in that situation. Not even able to go outside. It is not a long shot that London would be this dirty because it has been known for being this polluted for years. Since hot air rises and cold air falls, I am surprised that this does not happen more often. It is devastating though.
Answer to Question:
1. This certainly could happen here, but there are a lot less chances of it. It would be a lot more chance of this in a city like Philadelphia where there is a lot more pollution. Even then the new technology that makes our pollution less dirty will also lessen the chances.
Opinion:
ReplyDeleteDevastating events like these are very upsetting to see, and should be taken as warning signs as to what will happen if we continue to live our lives just as we have. Since London is already a heavily polluted area, I'm not surprised that this event happened in the first place. I would take a guess and say that it was also caused by thermal inversion, like the one we learned about in class? And 12,000 died? You'd think with visibility like that people would just stay home... But again, things aren't going to change unless people change. I feel like recently people have been purposefully ignoring their own impact on the environment, knowing that it they witnessed the full extent, it would be terrifying. The only way we can avoid events like these, is to not cause them.
Answer to question:
1. This could definitely happen here, but most likely on a much smaller scale, and probably not as devastatingly. I wouldn't think it would specifically be here in the suburbs, but in major cities like Pittsburgh, there is the possibility.
First off, you forgot a title again...
ReplyDeleteOpinion:
I find it interesting that the stuff we learned in class about smog in Donora, PA also occur elsewhere. While the Donora smog was from zinc smelting, this was from coal byproducts. Both are an example of industrial pollution, but I'm not entirely sure which we should be more concerned about. Comparing the amount of deaths from the smog to the amount of deaths in an air raid really got the message of how serious this is through to me. While it was about half of the amount of deaths, the fact that Londoners caused this themselves is really sad.
Answer to Thoughtful Question:
2) According to the article, London is trying to prevent this from happening again. Since there aren't any stories in the news about killer smog, I assume that most of the world is getting better at releasing stuff into the air that could cause smog. In terms of air pollution in general we still have a problem, which is evident through global warming and ozone issues. I don't believe anyone has died as instantly from ozone (maybe from long term exposure), so the fact that we have some pollution does not concern me as much as if we were to have clouds of death killing everyone in a matter of days.
Answer to Other Question (Science related so it isn't random):
Definition of cloud: "a visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen crystals made of water or various chemicals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary body." If you ever go outside on a foggy day, you'll notice that it is normally moist outside. This is because fog is just a cloud that has formed lower to the ground. In the sense of smog, that is not a cloud since it is just suspended particles of stuff. There needs to be liquid for a cloud.
Serious answer for the silly question... what is this black magic?