Acid Rain - The Quiet Killer (Weekend World)
ITV politics show finds that chemical pollution can be removed at the source, but business demands a cost-benefit analysis.
This episode of ITV's flagship current affairs show considers the issue of chemical pollution from British coal-fired power stations. A contemporary audience will notice the parallels with debates around climate change. The programme suggests that UK energy use is polluting the global atmospheric commons and adversely affecting places both at home: Loch Rannoch, Welsh lakes, Westminster Abbey; and abroad: Scandinavian watercourses, and German and Czech forests.
The business and government interests who offer comment are wary of expensive mitigations. They highlight uncertainty and doubt around the causal factors and call for pilot schemes, cost/benefit analyses and further research before taking action. Communist countries are blamed as the major polluters, the UK's responsibility is questioned, and acting unilaterally is declared liable to produce competitive disadvantages.
The solution proposed is legally-binding treaties made by the European Community or the United Nations. Both Liberal politician Simon Hughes and Labour's Jack Cunningham agree. Conservative Environment Minister William Waldegrave is interviewed by host Brian Walden and also appears minded to sign an international accord. The delay in doing so and the haggling on the terms of the agreement are presented as simply a pragmatic assertion of 'what you can do in what timescales'.
Climate Challenges: Environmental Issues on Screen
How green causes have been covered and communicated on screen, from acid rain to global warming.
Issues related to climate and the environment are never far from the forefront of public debate and, from the 1990s onwards, the topic of global warming was brought very close to home by a succession of government campaigns tasked with raising awareness about the impact our everyday energy use has on the world around us.
To encourage us to use our cars less, or turn down our thermostats, or adopt a series of energy efficiency guidelines, the powers that be corralled all the ingenuity of the creative sector. And so, be they painted, celeb-filled, funny, heart-breaking or stop-motion animated, these short films appealed to our hearts (and our bank balances) in a bid to save the planet.
This collection places these public information films in dialogue with other environmentally-minded works, ranging from activism to news reports, children's programming to industrial films, to fill out a complex and wide-ranging story that has never been more relevant.
28 videos in this collection
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Are You Doing Your Bit? Campaign 1999/2000
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UNEP Conference: Ozone
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DEFRA Climate Challenge
Act on CO2: Standby & Loft
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Act on CO2: Ice Caps
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Act on CO2: Chimney
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Act on CO2: Bedtime Story
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Home Energy Efficiency: Stairs
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Home Energy Efficiency: Rug
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Home Energy Efficiency: Faint - COI/Env/I302/010
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Energy Efficiency: Dancer
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Ozone Alert
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Go Wild! [19/12/91]
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Wake Up, Freak Out, Then Get a Grip
Ash Sarkar x Extinction Rebellion: Lovebomb the Cops?
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Gaia
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Scientists Link Pollution and Climate
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Emission Impossible
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Acid Rain - The Quiet Killer
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Nationwide Study on Acid Rain
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Wind Energy
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Managing Energy: Films to Help You
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Making Tracks Without Footprints
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Eye to the Future
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Green Issues
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This Earth the Inheritance
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