The great London fog

In 1952, a severe cold snap hit London, England. Part of the cause was meteorological. The other culprit was increased coal burning in homes. Smoke and pollutants were trapped in a temperature inversion that made the toxic mix hang in the air. The heavy smog blanketed London for five days. 4,000 Londoners died. 123,000 suffered respiratory consequences.

The British Clean Air Act was passed in England in 1956. The bill caused residents who burned coal to use fireplaces and furnaces that did not release black coal smoke that bellowed out of the chimneys. The great London smog was a turning point in advocating for cleaner air.

That was seven years before the Clean Air Act was passed in the United States, in 1963. Iterations of this legislation and other legislation for Clean Water in 1972 have been slow coming to the United States.

Environmental priorities have become an issue of the left. Politicalization of protection of air and water seems a short-sighted proposition. We all breathe air. We all drink water.

Recent headlines report that Donald Trump will be taking us back to the 50s with coal mining.

Becky Rom, an environmental activist in the New York Times says President Trump has taken unprecedented steps to boost mining for copper, nickel, and rare minerals. He is also “greenlighting releasing federal lands for expanding coal and uranium mines.”

Trump is outlining a plan to open 13.1 acres of federal land for mining aiming to protect the coal industry. “Mine Baby, Mine” is his new mantra. The current Environmental Protection Agency says it will repeal dozens of Biden Era regulations for cutting carbon dioxide, mercury and other pollutants.

The agency also plans to limit cleaning of wastewater pollution from power plants because it is  too costly.

Denial of climate change is becoming mainstream now. Sounds like a good cartoon. A guy standing in his front yard with a “Drill Baby, Drill” poster in his hand. His wife on the other side of the yard stands with the poster, “Mine Baby, Mine.” The rain is coming down hard in the first frame. In the second frame water is up to their knees. In the final frame the water is up to their necks and the man yells, “Those damn tree-hugging liberals. This is all Biden’s fault.”

Follow the money in some of these latest decisions. Who is giving money to Trump?

A more pressing issue may be, what can we do about this?

In the 1980s, I had a parishioner, Joe, who had worked in the coal mines in West Virginia. He had a good spirit and a deadly lung disease. He was probably younger than I am when he died. Hindsight is 20-20.

Unaddressed environmental issues, problems known and unknown, have taken many a life because someone making money off the problem was more concerned about profits than people.

The roll-back of clean energy policies is unconscionable. Yet, here we are, stuck in a bygone era of raping the land, dumping pollutants in rivers and streams, giving misguided promises that our environmental issues are fiction, fake news.

You should have met Joe.

Lib Campbell is a retired Methodist pastor, retreat leader, columnist and host of the blogsite www.avirtualchurch.com. She can be contacted at libcam05@gmail.com