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posted by
martyb
on Tuesday November 22 2016, @08:41AM
from the what-acid-rain-feels-like-for-fish? dept.
from the what-acid-rain-feels-like-for-fish? dept.
In December 1952, a dense fog fell over London that lasted roughly four days, dropping visibility and making it hard to breathe. At the time, residents paid little attention to the strange event, writing it off as just another natural fog, but once it lifted, people started dying.
The event – referred to as the Great Smog – led to the death of roughly 12,000 people, and the hospitalisation of up to 150,000. But how could something like this happen?
[...] Nw [sic], over 60 years later, an international team of researchers might have finally figured it out, as part of an investigation into China's modern air pollution issues.
The answer is actually pretty terrifying – it turns out people were breathing in the fog equivalent of acid rain.
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Scientists Have Figured Out Why London Fog Killed 12,000 People
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Remember Darwin; building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter mice.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 22 2016, @12:10PM
How do you figure that? China's death rate seems much lower in comparison.
12000 /4days /8Million people in London around that time. => 0.00375
1.6M / 365days / 1.4Billion in China now => 0.0000031
Taking only the chinese population categorized as urban population (about 56%):
1.6M / 365days / 0.78Billion * 56% => 0.0000056
(Number sources are wikipedia and world bank)
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Tuesday November 22 2016, @04:01PM
The grandparent post seems to be saying that nearly as many people were dying on each of those four days in London as die each day now from air pollution in all of China.
That Wikipedia page has another estimate:
A draft of a 2007 combined World Bank and SEPA report stated that up to 760,000 people died prematurely each year in China because of air and water pollution.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 23 2016, @07:58AM
Not all Chinese live in the city.