THE GREAT SMOG OF LONDON - FROM FOG TO FEAR

December 1952. A thick fog descends upon London, creeping into homes and leaving death in its wake: 12,000 victims in less than five days. What was at first thought to be an ordinary weather event became an unprecedented tragedy, exposing a previously underestimated enemy: air pollution.

Although coal had been a pillar of Britain’s Industrial Revolution, the disaster sparked a new awareness of pollution’s dangers. The British government responded with the world’s first major piece of air quality legislation, the Clean Air Act of 1956. Other industrialized nations soon followed suit, fearing they might suffer the same fate as the Londoners.

Combining archive footage with expert insights, this film tells how the Great Smog of London became a global wake-up call and gave rise to modern environment awareness.