Nationwide Study on Acid Rain

From the collection of

East Anglian Film Archive at the University of East Anglia

The East Anglian Film Archive, the UK's first regional film archive, offers a unique record of the East of England's social and cultural history. As part of the University of East Anglia, we continue to lead moving image heritage research and inspire audience participation through community projects and events. Our collections represent a broad range of amateur and professional creativity, from 1896 to the present day.

Nationwide Study on Acid Rain (About Anglia)

East Anglian Film Archive at the University of East Anglia
Stevenage
20 Feb 1986
Sound

A 20-million-pound project has been launched by the Government to find out more about acid rain and the damage it causes.

Warren Spring Laboratory in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, is leading on a groundbreaking nationwide project to find out more about acid rain and the damage it causes. Gathering data from collection points across the United Kingdom, the project will provide scientists with a national picture of rainfall composition, including its acidity across the country over a long period of time. The extensiveness of the research makes it the largest study of this kind to be carried out in the UK.

Analysing daily testing of rain and snow samples, a chromatograph gives a readout of ions present, while another test monitors pollution by ozone. Although the causes of acid rain has been linked to acidic emission from the combustion of fossil fuels, the new study hopes to better understand the effect the acid rain has on the environment. Dr Martin Williams, head of Air Pollution at the Warren Spring Laboratory, hopes the Government-funded study will provide sound evidence for the need to take action in reducing fossil fuels emission. The Warren Spring Laboratory shut in 1994, after more than 25 years as Britain's prime source of expertise on monitoring air pollution.

Reporter Peter Lugg interviewed Dr Martin Williams for this video, made to be shown in a news story on Anglia Television's early evening news / magazine programme About Anglia.

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From the collection

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

Public information film about global warming

Helping The Earth: Cry

1992

Watch in libraries only

Are You Doing Your Bit? Campaign 1999/2000

2000

Watch in libraries only

UNEP Conference: Ozone

1990

Watch in libraries only

DEFRA Climate Challenge

2006

“It’s like Blackpool illuminations up here!” – Dad turns green after seeing the household’s latest energy bills

Act on CO2: Standby & Loft

Watch in libraries only

Act on CO2: Ice Caps

Watch in libraries only

Act on CO2: Chimney

Watch in libraries only

Act on CO2: Bedtime Story

Watch in libraries only

Home Energy Efficiency: Stairs

1995

Watch in libraries only

Home Energy Efficiency: Rug

1995

Watch in libraries only

Home Energy Efficiency: Faint - COI/Env/I302/010

1995

Watch in libraries only

Energy Efficiency: Dancer

1999

Watch in libraries only

Ozone Alert

1990

Watch in libraries only

Go Wild! [19/12/91]

1991

Watch in libraries only

Wake Up, Freak Out, Then Get a Grip

2008

Novara Media’s Ash Sarkar reports from an Extinction Rebellion protest on Westminster Bridge in October 2019

Ash Sarkar x Extinction Rebellion: Lovebomb the Cops?

2019

Watch in libraries only

Gaia

Leeds
1994

Watch in libraries only

Scientists Link Pollution and Climate

Norwich
1986

Watch in libraries only

Emission Impossible

Islington
2006

Watch in libraries only

Acid Rain - The Quiet Killer

1984

Watch in libraries only