En décembre 1952, Londres a connu un brouillard comme aucun autre—il était épais, jaunâtre et carrément mortel. Ce n'était pas simplement du brouillard ordinaire ; c'était du smog, un mélange toxique de brouillard et de fumée provenant de la combustion du charbon. Pendant cinq jours, la ville était pratiquement aveuglée, et les gens pouvaient à peine voir à quelques mètres devant eux. Le respirer était encore pire—cela provoquait de graves problèmes respiratoires, et malheureusement, on estime que plus de 4 000 personnes sont mortes pendant cet événement, avec des milliers d'autres tombant malades. Cela a été un appel au réveil pour l'action environnementale, menant à des lois comme le Clean Air Act pour prévenir de tels désastres. Le « Grand Smog » a montré à quel point la pollution pouvait être dangereuse et pourquoi nous devons garder notre air propre. Animation créée par Sympa.
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FunTranscript
00:00On December 5th, 1952, a yellow-gray fog storm engulfed London,
00:06killing 12,000 people.
00:08It wasn't just a fog storm.
00:10It was spreading over 48.28 km.
00:15Buses stopped, planes were stuck on the ground,
00:18and ambulances were trapped.
00:20For five days, the city disappeared into the smell and the mud.
00:24The streets were covered in black vases.
00:26Those who dared to venture outside were blinded by fear.
00:29Their faces were stained as the birds crashed against the buildings.
00:33With zero visibility, the robbers were getting away,
00:36and even the shows in the hall were canceled.
00:39The great smoke sent more than 100,000 people to the hospital,
00:42leaving a dark legacy of death and decay.
00:48The causes of this tragedy date back to the distant past.
00:51Something called a fog of weight
00:53became one of the symbols of London in the 19th century.
00:56Nature was not to be blamed for this fog.
00:59It was caused by people burning coal to heat their houses
01:03and run factories.
01:05In fact, London's air began to become smoky in the 13th century
01:09when people began to use coal a lot.
01:12The situation worsened as the city grew bigger.
01:15By the 17th century, people were already complaining about polluted air.
01:19King Jacques I tried to reduce coal combustion with new laws,
01:23but nothing really changed.
01:25With the emergence of more factories during the Industrial Revolution
01:28at the end of the 18th century,
01:30the problem took on disproportionate proportions.
01:33The sky was filled with tiny particles
01:35to which water clung to form heavy dark clouds.
01:38This mixture of smoke and fog
01:40became so problematic that people called it smog.
01:44Indeed, this word was invented in London in the early 20th century.
01:48Smog sometimes became so thick
01:50that it could last a whole week,
01:52making people sick.
01:54Some even died.
01:56Although smog was harmful,
01:58people did not want to stop using coal
02:00because it provided them with jobs
02:02and heated their houses.
02:04So the problem persisted.
02:06In the 20th century, thick fog finally occurred less frequently
02:10because factories began to move away from the city.
02:13But on this day in December 1952,
02:16an anticyclone appeared above London.
02:19This meant that the cold air near the ground
02:21was trapped in a warmer air at an altitude,
02:24like a blanket holding everything underneath.
02:26Because of this, all the smoke from factories,
02:28cars and domestic chimneys
02:30could not rise and move away as usual.
02:33Instead, it remained close to the ground,
02:36mixed with water in the air
02:38and produced an extremely thick and dirty fog.
02:41In addition, the days of December are shorter
02:43and it was really cold.
02:45So people had to use even more coal
02:47for heating and lighting than usual.
02:50All this led to a disaster.
02:52It was obvious that sulfur particles
02:54from the combustion of coal
02:56made the fog yellow
02:58and gave it a rotten egg smell.
03:00But scientists could not understand
03:02why and how these particles
03:04turned into sulfuric acid.
03:06Decades later,
03:08an international team of researchers
03:10recreated this disturbing fog in a laboratory.
03:13They used air samples
03:15and atmospheric measurements of the fog
03:17in two large Chinese cities
03:19with high levels of sulfur dioxide in the air,
03:22just like London during the Great Fog.
03:24They discovered that thick and dirty air,
03:26called pollution fog,
03:28does not form in the same way
03:30in London and China.
03:32In the fog of London,
03:34the smoke from the combustion of coal
03:36released two gases,
03:38sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.
03:40These gases mingled with the water droplets
03:42of the fog,
03:44which made them harmless at first
03:46because the water diluted the harmful chemicals.
03:48But as the water evaporated
03:50and there was nothing left to dilute the two dioxides,
03:53the fog became very acidic
03:55and dangerous to breathe,
03:57thus damaging people's lungs.
03:59In today's China,
04:01things are a little different.
04:03A third chemical product, ammonia,
04:05is added to the mixture.
04:07Ammonia, which comes from agricultural
04:09and car operations,
04:11helps to balance the acidity of the fog,
04:13thus making it less harmful
04:15than the deadly fog of London.
04:17It should be noted that reducing nitrogen
04:19and ammonia dioxide
04:21could still help China
04:23to reduce its air quality problems.
04:25They hope that their discovery
04:27will help to understand
04:29the fogs of the past London
04:31and will give China ideas
04:33to make its air cleaner.
04:35This could also preserve
04:37the health of millions of people
04:39around the world who currently live
04:41in cities with poor air quality.
04:43After the terrible fog of 1952,
04:45the air problem in London was serious.
04:47Four years later,
04:49the British authorities created a law
04:51called the Clean Air Act
04:53to prevent such an event from happening again.
04:55This law prohibits people
04:57from burning smoky fuels
04:59such as coal in their homes
05:01or in factory burners
05:03in certain parts of the city.
05:05To help people adapt,
05:07the authorities gave them money
05:09so that they could switch to cleaner heating options
05:11such as fuel, natural gas or electricity.
05:13It took time for these changes
05:15to make a big difference.
05:17And unfortunately,
05:19another dangerous smog occurred in 1962.
05:21But the Clean Air Act
05:23was a very important step
05:25for the protection of the environment
05:27and the health of people.
05:29Almost a century before the Great Smoke,
05:31another bad event took place in London,
05:33the Great Stink.
05:35At that time,
05:37people did not have adequate bathrooms
05:39or sewage systems
05:41and factories were diverted
05:43directly into the Stink.
05:45When the weather became extremely hot
05:47in July and August,
05:49the water level in the river
05:51dropped and piles of waste,
05:53sometimes 83 meters high,
05:55appeared on the muddy banks.
05:57The smell was so terrible
05:59that even Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
06:01had to cancel their boat trips
06:03on the river.
06:05Politicians working in the new Parliament buildings
06:07located right next to the river
06:09could not stand the smell.
06:11The air inside was so terrible
06:13that they had to hold tissues on their noses
06:15to be able to breathe.
06:17They even tried to soak the curtains
06:19in hot chlorine,
06:21hoping that it would help
06:23to hide the horrible smell.
06:25Many Londoners believed
06:27that the bad air, called miasma,
06:29caused horrible things like cholera,
06:31which had already cost the lives
06:33of many people.
06:35The engineer Joseph Bazalgette
06:37was responsible for all the city's waste.
06:39His sewage system was so well designed
06:41that it still works today,
06:43even though London has grown
06:45to exceed 8 million inhabitants.
06:47On the other side of the Atlantic,
06:49in the United States,
06:51there was also a day
06:53when you couldn't see your hand
06:55in front of your face
06:57and it was impossible to breathe
06:59outside.
07:01But the reasons for this Black Sunday
07:03were very different
07:05from those of the Great Plains.
07:07This drought lasted almost 10 years.
07:09Without rain, the farms dried up
07:11and the soil became dust.
07:13Strong winds blew this dry land
07:15into the air and created huge dust storms.
07:17These storms, called
07:19Black Storms,
07:21made breathing and vision difficult.
07:23People tried to protect themselves
07:25by putting vaseline
07:27in their nostrils,
07:29wearing masks and sealing their houses.
07:31But the dust still made
07:33In 1934,
07:35things got even worse.
07:37It was the driest year
07:39in more than a thousand years.
07:41Temperatures exceeded 100 degrees
07:43for weeks and the land became
07:45even more arid.
07:47On April 14, 1935,
07:49after months of bad weather,
07:51the sky finally seemed clear
07:53and there was hardly any wind,
07:55which was rare for this region.
07:57People went out,
07:59hoping that the worst had finally passed.
08:01The weather forecast announced
08:03that some good rain storms
08:05would make the land fertile again.
08:07But unfortunately,
08:09that morning, a cold wind from Canada
08:11met hot air in the Dakotas
08:13and triggered a huge dust storm.
08:15The storm spread over
08:17hundreds of kilometers wide
08:19and thousands of feet high.
08:21A sunny day
08:23instantly became completely dark.
08:25Drivers had to hide in their cars
08:27and other people took refuge
08:29in barns, fire stations,
08:31anti-tornado shelters
08:33and under their beds
08:35to stay safe.
08:37The storm did not stop for hours
08:39and cost the lives of at least
08:4120 people.
08:43Many people could not stop coughing
08:45and a man became blind.
08:47The storm was so strong
08:49that it transported 300,000 tons
08:51of land across the country
08:53and even reached the East Coast.