Braylon Corley The Great Smog by Braylon Corley

What was the Great Smog

113067_15 — 2025-08-21 15:38:02 UTC

The Great Smog to place in London, England on December 5th 1952 is when people in London began to suffer illnesses after breathing in the smog. The smog was due to air pollution caused by the industrial output with a mix of the limiting air circulation due to the large river valley, which the cold air trapped warm air below. Coal powerplants and diesel powered vehicles was a main factor to the Great Smog. It took lives of around 4,000- 10,000 in London.

Impact on people

113067_15 — 2025-08-21 15:52:26 UTC

The Great Smog caused people in London to have respiratory problems causing a majority of the death and hospitalizations. Elders and people with pre-existing conditions were the most vulnerable to the smog. It also affected visibility which affected everyone's daily life's and transportation. Even today people get affected by respiratory problems due forest fires smoke which can cause the same problems as people affected in the Great Smog. Even today natural disasters like forest fires, dust storms, and even volcanic eruptions still affect the air people breath in raising respiratory issues and viruses among people which make it unsustainable for people to breath and even live.

Impact on economics

113067_15 — 2025-08-21 16:04:32 UTC

Public transportation were cut off due to the lack of visibility of the smog, which caused the delivery of goods and services to slow down. Crime rates spiked because the smog provided cover for criminals to get away with crime during this time. People were unable to get to work with lack of transportation which reduced productivity and economic activity. Healthcare costs rose due to the cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The acid rain during the Great Smog damaged structure making a dent in there GDP. After the Great Smog London took act and implemented a national clean air act which took place across the world that is still took in place today. In even today air pollution still damages are economy, for example the forest fires seen today cause smoke exposure to humans which raises costs for national health systems and they due to the smoke related issues and property destruction helped in the decline in our GDP and labor income.

Impact on Environment

113067_15 — 2025-08-22 15:30:28 UTC

Due to the coal releasing Sulfur dioxide, it led to acid rain on London. This acid rain overall effected there water, aquatic life, forest, and all human made structures. Even after the smog London's water supply and food supply were all contained by the acid rain from the smog. Cattle didn't just suffer from the acid rain, they also suffered from respiratory just like humans did. After the Great Smog the eccentric and anthropocentric people of London came together to implement clean air laws to prevent the Great Smog from happening again. Even though the Great Smog was a bad event for London, it led to London to start taking care of there air which overall improved there air quality and helped fight against air pollution. This event helped people stop polluting by biking or taking public transportation to save energy, and by using solar panels to help stop polluting. Even though it is not as deadly as the Great Smog, forest fires today still pollute the air and even affect our wildlife habitat as well as our water supply just like the Great Smog did in London.

How'd we address it?

113067_15 — 2025-08-22 15:51:09 UTC

To address this issue people in London decided to take act. The ecocentric people decided to protest to help stop the air pollution from the factories and homes to help protect there air. While anthropocentric people implemented laws and acts like the Clean Air Act to help save there air and stop it from getting harmed again.

Why is it important?

113067_15 — 2025-08-22 16:15:08 UTC

After everyone experienced or heard about the smog it led government to take act. The legislative marked this event as a turning point by making smoke control zones which are still used today and started limiting coal emissions. On a national level it led to everyone to make the Clean Air Act of 1956, to reduce air pollution by allowing authorities to control emissions. Overall the Great Smog showed us how deadly the air could be if we do not take care of it, so people (even today) it will come back to hurt us so we must take act.

How we now view the environment

113067_15 — 2025-08-24 17:45:52 UTC

Instead of using cheap, bad quality coal and materials to keep out homes warm and to cook. We now know the consequences of it and what is does to our biocapacity and air. We have now shifted our perspective from an public issue cause my cheap quality coal. Today, people start biking more, start using public transportation, and even using material safe tech to help power there homes just to help and reduce air pollution.

How'd we solve the Great Smog

113067_15 — 2025-08-24 17:57:42 UTC

After people in London realized what just happened they wanted to take change so everyone came up and started pitching in to saving there air. Anthropocentric developed laws to stop air pollution like the Clean Air Act in London in 1956, which regulated the materials beings used as fuel. While technocentric people developed new technology to help make better ways to power home and factories like solar panels and wind mills, which are both safe for our planet and don't pollute the air. Lastly ecocentric people started coming together to start taking public transportation and biking to save on emissions, and started to stop using harmful fuel for homes.

Fun facts

113067_15 — 2025-08-24 17:59:58 UTC

The Smog was so thick that people couldn't even see there one feet. Also the Smog's nickname "pea-souper" came from it's thick dirty yellow or brown color.