Le plus grand brouillard de Londres qui a coûté la vie à des milliers de personnes

Sympa

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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Musique par Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com   Pour ne rien perdre de Sympa, abonnez-vous!: https://goo.gl/6E4Xna​ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nos réseaux sociaux : Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sympasympacom/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sympa.officiel/  Stock de fichiers (photos, vidéos et autres): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Si tu en veux encore plus, fais un tour ici:  http://sympa-sympa.com

Transcript

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.

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