Poisonous Skies: Acid Rain and the Globalization of Pollution

344 Pages·2019·4.81 MB·English

by  Rachel Emma Rothschild

Poisonous Skies

Poisonous Skies
Acid Rain and the Globalization of Pollution
Rachel Emma Rothschild
The University of Chicago Press :: Chicago and London
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2019 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case
of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information,
contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago,
IL 60637.
Published 2019
Printed in the United States of America
28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 1 2 3 4 5
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 63471- 5 (cloth)
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 63485- 2 (e- book)
doi: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226634852.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rothschild, Rachel Emma, author.
Title: Poisonous skies : acid rain and the globalization of pollution /
Rachel Emma Rothschild.
Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2019. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018054763 | isbn 9780226634715 (cloth :
alk. paper) | isbn 9780226634852 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Acid rain—Research—History. | Acid rain—Political
aspects. | Acid rain—Environmental aspects. | Air—Pollution—
Research—History.
Classification: LCC td195.42 .r67 2019 | ddc 363.738/6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018054763
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48– 1992
(Permanence of Paper).
Contents
List of Acronyms vii
Introduction: A Rain of Ashes 1
1 Creating a Global Pollution Problem 9
Death- Dealing Fogs 12
From the Local to the Global 18
The Discovery of Acid Rain 23
2 The Science of Acid Rain 36
Acid Rain and the Development of Environmental Science 38
Crossing Boundaries: Constructing a Science of Acid Rain 44
The End of the “Heroic” Era 47
3 Energy Industry Research and the Politics of Doubt 58
Divesting from Pollution Control Technology 62
The Energy Industry Enters the Environmental Science Field 68
A “Silent Spring” for Acid Rain? 73
4 Pollution across the Iron Curtain 83
Overtures to Eastern Europe 85
Environmental Monitoring and the Limits of Détente 90
Pollution Modeling without Target Maps 97
COnTEnTS vi
5 Environmental Diplomacy in the Cold War 101
Economic or Environmental Catastrophe 103
Scientists as Diplomats 107
Thwarting a Convention with Teeth 112
6 An Environmental Crisis Collides with
a Conservative Revolution 124
Ecology and the Question of Environmental Damage 126
Confronting Coal Industry Influence under
Reagan and Thatcher 132
International Pressure Meets Domestic Politics 138
7 Acid Rain and the Precautionary Principle 149
Costs and Benefits of Precaution 151
A Scientific “Bribe” 157
Britain Joins the Acid Rain Club 165
8 A Warning Bell for a Fossil Fuel Future 174
The Last Holdout 176
A Pyrrhic Victory for Scientific Expertise 183
The Environmental Legacy of Acid Rain 187
Epilogue The Climate Change Reckoning 192
Acknowledgments 199
Notes 203
Sources 295
Archival Sources 295
Oral Histories 312
Published Sources 313
Index 315
Acronyms
CEGB (Central Electricity Generating Board)
CERL (Central Electricity Research Laboratories)
CSCE (Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe)
DAFS (Department of Agriculture and Fisheries in Scotland)
EACN (European Air Chemistry Network)
EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)
IBP (International Biological Program)
IIASA (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis)
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)
ITE (Institute for Terrestrial Ecology)
NAPAP (National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program)
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
NAVF (Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities,
Norges almenvitenskapelige forskningsråd)
NILU (Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Norsk institutt for
luftforskning)
NTNF (Royal Norwegian Council for Scientific and Industrial
Research, Norges Teknisk-N aturvitenskapelige
Forskningsråd)
OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development)
OEEC (Organisation for European Economic Cooperation)
OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)
RAINS (Regional Air Pollution Information and Simulation)
ACROnyMS viii
SNSF ( Acid Rain’s Effects on Forests and Fish Project, Sur nedbørs
virkning på skog og fisk)
SWAP (Surface Water Acidification Program)
UN (United Nations)
WHO (World Health Organization)
Introduction: A Rain of Ashes
Direr visions, worse foreboding,
Glare upon me through the gloom!
Britain’s smoke-c loud sinks corroding
On the land in noisome fume,
Smirches all its tender bloom,
All its gracious verdure dashes,
Sweeping low with breath of bane,
Stealing sunlight from the plain,
Showering down like rain of ashes
On the city of God’s doom.1
The earliest recorded reference to air pollution from one
country harming the environment of its neighbors ap-
peared in the above epigraph, written in 1865 by the Nor-
wegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in his tragedy Brand.2
While Ibsen lacked our modern-d ay understanding of air
pollution and its ecological effects, he was responding
to a dramatic change in human society and its relation-
ship with nature. The smoke-c louds of Britain’s industri-
alization, powered by the country’s ample coal deposits,
would soon spread throughout Europe and North Amer-
ica. Over the course of the nineteenth century, coal extrac-
tion grew ten- fold. By the end of the twentieth century, it
had increased nearly seven- fold as developing countries
like China and India sought to replicate the vast economic