First report / Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution
Date:
[1971]
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: First report / Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    why any comprehensive understanding of the problems of pollution must take account of the much larger problems of population. Technological change, too, has not taken place at a steady rate but has been accelerating. 34. There is no simple relation between pollution, population and technology; but as Britain’s population and the gross national product rise between now and the end of the century, more energy will be used; there will be more transport; and there will be more waste to get rid of. No one can predict accurately what our population will be by the year 2000. One recent careful forecast for the United Kingdom is about 66 millions, an increase of 18 per cent over the present figure of 56 millions. But, for forecasts of the dangers of pollution, population growth is not the main issue facing our nation. More important are the concen- trations of population in cities and in certain geographical areas in Britain, and the output per head which accompanies a rise in living standards: on a conser- vative estimate this output could well double over the next 30 years. 35. Failing deliberate measures to control pollution and to repair past damage, there is likely to be a substantial deterioration of the environment in the years ahead and the quality of life in Britain will be correspondingly impoverished, despite an appearance of greater affluence. It is against this background that we now summarise trends in the more important indices of pollution. Air pollution 36. There is a long history of legislation to diminish air pollution in Britain; but for our present purpose we illustrate the trend in air pollution from data collected since 1950. Since the first Clean Air Act became law in 1956 there has been a steady reduction in the emission of smoke and sulphur dioxide into the air over Britain, despite a 10 per cent increase in population and a 17 per cent increase in annual gross energy consumption. This is clear from the data sum- marised in Figures 1-4, based on information obtained from the National Survey of Atmospheric Pollution, which is being carried out jointly by the Warren Spring Laboratory and a number of local authorities. One welcome result of smoke control has been the improvement in the atmosphere of our big cities; in Central London, for example, winter sunshine has increased by 50 per cent and is now virtually the same as at Kew (Figure 5)(3). But it must be emphasised that these improvements are not uniformly spread over the country. There are regions in the north of England where there is urgent need for a more ~ vigorous application of the Clean Air Acts. We quote from a publication of the Warren Spring Laboratory: ‘The question posed by this position is whether with existing knowledge and legislation the North can be made as free from smoke as the South. .. . By the vigorous application of the domestic provisions of the Clean Air Act, and the changing social framework, the great housing estates of outer London have been made as free from smoke as any urban areas in the South and the inner core of Central London is within striking distance of achieving the same state of cleanliness in spite of its very high population density. This is not something that can only be achieved in the South because the data for Sheffield, a great industrial town in the North, show the same spectacular progress’’. 1]
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