| The spike in the 70s will have been the steady growth of cars and re-industrialisation since the war. The fuel crisis was 73, for a couple of years, which led to queues at pumps, rationing and introduction of speed limits in many places. That led to recession and the decline of some heavier industries... and was a factor leading to the election of Reagan and Thatcher at the end of the 70s, start of 80s. Their restructuring led to the terminal decline of some heavier industry. In 79 there was a UNECE conference[1] on pollution that most members signed up to. 1985 gave us the Sulfur agreement that UK and US (amongst others) never ratified. The mid 90s saw further reduction of sulfur, that finally the UK adopted, though the US didn't. That led to wider use of SO2 scubbers and tighter emissions, though initial efforts only stemmed the increase due to rising car numbers during the 80s. The agreement has had regular updates ever since, leading to lower targets, adding pollutants, adoption of catalysts etc. Most of the acid rain is now in the oceans of course. It's still all under the UNECE so excludes the growth economies and the developing world so in today's world it excludes much of the world's industry. That was nearly all from memory - there will be mistakes. :) It's worth noting that at the start of the 80s acid rain, its causes and effects, were on the news almost like climate change is today. It was every week - seeing pieces showing dieback in Scandanavian forests, lake acidity, some previously unknown effect and on and on. In the UK it was a weekly reminder the Thatcher govt didn't believe. We learned the UK had tried to limit Sulfur in the 30s and had started fitting SO2 scrubbers on power stations - between the wars! The war meant that was the last heard of it until the 80s and 90s. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Long-Range_Trans... |