T Reference: Hernan, R.E. (2010). This Borrowed Earth 32 trapped - PDF document

LONDON, ENGLAND content than the harder anthracite coal used in Wales and Scotland. The relationship is inverted with the colder air remaining close to the ground and the warm air rises and mixes with the cooler air. Occasionally this vate fog. Usually the air near the ground is warmer than the air higher up, Certain weather conditions, particularly temperature inversions, aggra­ substances. a breath of this air carries with it carbon particles and other dangerous penetrating the foggy air. No only does this cause limited visibility, but not transparent to light, and as the fog thickens, light is prevented from particles of water, fog becomes smog. The soot and water combination is When carbon particles of soot from coal-fire emissions combine with smoke it emitted was tarry and full of hydrocarbons. it by sea from Newcastle, but it had a higher sulfur and nitrogen oxide 1952 fuel. The soft coal was cheap, in part because of the low cost of shipping In 1952 Londoners were relying heavily on soft, bituminous coal for residents of London the fog was a frequent, if unwelcome, guest. its fog for a long time-romantic notions were even attached to it. For the realized just how deadly it was. After all, London had been notorious for thick that traveling throughout the city was almost impossible, but few seemed to recognize that it was happening. For four days the fog was so bers of people killed by any environmental disaster-but that no one some four thousand people died from it-one of the largest num­ he most unusual fact about the London Fog of 1952 was not that T Reference: Hernan, R.E. (2010). This Borrowed Earth

32 trapped in the fog throughout the area. By Friday morning, tons of car­ the smoke in London came from domestic fires. During World War II, the government even actively encouraged businesses to pollute as mili­ more difficult for the German bombers to see their targets. Even after the war, the fog remained an accepted aspect of living in London. Though the typical winter climate was cold, damp air with some clear­ ing spells, followed by fog or rain or snow, the fog dominated London dur­ ing the first week of December 1952. On Thursday evening, December 4, a high-pressure system settled over London, and a temperature inversion bon particulate and sulfur dioxide poured out of millions of domestic coal TH IS BORROWED EARTH fires and industrial plants into the still, foggy air over London. The tem­ perature inversion prevented the dispersal of the fog into the upper air and trapped the smoke and other pollutants at ground level. Smoke that escaped from the tall stacks of the manufacturing plants fell to the ground rather than rising into the air. On Friday, the fog and smoke covered much of London. A visitor stay­ ing in a warm, dry hotel with nothing to do might have found the fog on that first full day to be charming. Those who had to go to work did not. In the morning, people could see the outlines of buildings from a dis­ equivalent of about 650 tons for every square mile. About two-thirds of dumped some seventy-six thousand tons of soot on London each year, the century, those pokeable domestic fires, along with industrial emissions, , and the warmer air above it, trapping the colder air on the ground. If there is little or no wind, the air becomes stagnant and anything in that air, such as soot, remains suspended. During the nineteenth century, clean-air advocates attempted to address the em issions from factories and other businesses that contributed much of the soot. Eventually, they met with some success as legislation was passed making it a nuisance for a chimney to emit black smoke from a commercial establishment. Yet enforcement was difficult and sporadic tality, to have a blazing hearth. By the first few decades of the twentieth especially with regard t o proving what constituted black smoke. The smoke from domestic hearths remained uncontrolled. One prob­ lem in regulating domestic sources was the lack of alternative smokeless fuel supplies. Just as difficult an obstacle was the English fascination with a "pokeable" open fire. It was considered a national entitlement to make an open-hearth fire, and it was a sign of affluence, as well as of hospi­ tance of only seventy to eighty yards; by noon, the large sculptural figure tary authorities thought the smoke would serve as camouflage and make it

LONDON, ENGLAND Lormdoners carryon as the fog descends. Credit: g*Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos 33 atop Nelson's Column on Trafalgar Square was barely visible_ Around the Houses of Parliament, visibility was limited to a dozen yards_ By that time, streetlamps had to be lit_ With visibility along the Thames at zero, the Port of London was forced to close. Airports also closed_ As the day wore on, travel became increasingly difficult_ Buses everywhere in London experi­ enced serious delays.

34 hardly breathe. As one elderly patient described it: By Sunday, everything was blackened, inside as well as outside. Visibility remained at a few yards. Ambulances ran out of flares. With so many patients needing assistance, the ambulances began to carry several on each trip to the hospital. On one trip, an ambulance that had been dis­ patched to carry four patients to a hospital ended up taking them all to the mortuary instead. The elderly and the sick, especially those living alone, were increaSingly isolated during the fog. They could not get out, and if they did, they could It makes you feel certain that you ' r e going to die, that death is surely coming and windows. Hospitals began to fill up. Yet by late Saturday, the BBC was for you, partly because of your difficulty in breathing and partly because of the fierce pain in your throat and lungs ... and adding to your terror is the Sight of the fog, when you see it there all around you, like some kind of gray, obscene animal, outside your window, drifting, floating, almost looking in at you, as though it were waiting there to claim you, to seize you, to choke you ... to squeeze the breath, the very life out of vou reporting only that the fog might persist. No emergency had been declared. through open doors, down chimneys, even through cracks in walls, f loors, THIS BORROWED EARTH coughed up blackness. The color of the fog was not the usual gray, but black, or at times yel­ low. As evening fell, the Christmas lights in store windows looked eerily suspended in open air since the stores themsel v es could not be seen from a short distance. Flares were placed at intersections for the vehicles still on the streets. People groped along buildings, stumbled over curbs and each other, and when they arrived home found they were covered with soot. More disturbing than the impaired visibility was the difficulty in breathing, especially for older people and those with bronchitis. The smell of sulfur permeated the air. Noses stung, throats felt tight, and people When Londoners awoke on Saturday morning, the sixth, the fog was ing, the fog followed people inside, yello'x and thick. It extended over an area of one thousand square miles. Very few buses operated. At one point, seventeen buses formed a caravan to try to find their way back to the garage. The famous red double-decker buses inched along, bumper-to-bumper, with conductors leading the way by walking in front "'#ith flares, shouting directions. Ambulances traveled the same way. The fog infiltrated the tube stations. At one station, a bride and groom were waiting for a train to take them to their reception, since they had to abandon street-level transport. The bride's wedding gown was black from the soot in the air. By Saturday even r hodv.l