THE BIG SMOG: from for to fear

London, December 1952: A layer of thick, acrid fog settles over the city, infiltrating homes and workplaces and leaving a trail of death in its wake: 12,000 victims in less than five days. What could have been nothing more than an ordinary weather event turned instead into an unprecedented tragedy and revealed

to the world a hitherto underestimated enemy: air pollution. Although coal had been a pillar of Britain’s Industrial Revolution, the catastrophe triggered a stunning reversal in attitudes.  The British government reacted by enacting the world’s first law regulating air quality: The 1956 Clean Air Act. So the Great Smog of London was a global alarm signal that led to the birth of modern environmental awareness.