Imagine waking up in the morning and looking out of your window. Usually, you see the busy streets of the city waking up. Newspaper boys delivering the morning people. People rushing to catch their bus or train. But today, the view is different. In fact, it is non-existent.
The air outside has become thick, yellow, and dirty. You can barely see a few meters in front of your eyes. You step outside to investigate, and every breath you take burns your throat and chest.
This is not a science-fiction story. This is London in December 1952.
In the winter of that year, London was covered by what became known as the Great Smog. For five days, a deadly mixture of smoke, fog, and pollution trapped millions of people inside a city that could not breathe. Trains stopped running, schools closed, and thousands of people became seriously ill. Many never recovered.
In this episode of Thinking in English, we’ll look at what exactly happened during the Great Smog of 1952. Next, we’ll explore why it happened, focusing on the environmental, social, and political causes. Finally, I want to connect this historical event to modern pollution problems, and consider whether we have really learned the lessons of the past?
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