Abstract
The attitude of the UK government in the ‘acid rain’ controversy has earned Britain the label of ‘the dirty man of Europe’. In the face of an international moral outcry, the UK has been notoriously stubborn in denying accusations that the sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions of its coal-fired power stations caused environmental damage abroad. Analysts trying to pinpoint the reasons for the UK’s failure to deal with the problem point to inherent conflicts of interest. Its unwillingness to act is interpreted as governmental delaying tactics, while the government’s reference to scientific uncertainty is described as using science as a ‘figleaf’ for policy. The inaction is explained in terms of the conscious exercise of power by key actors.1
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Notes
See S. Boehmer-Christiansen, ‘Black mist and the acid rain: science as a figleaf of policy,’ The Political Quarterly, Vol. 59, no. 2, 1988, pp. 145–60; S. Boehmer-Christiansen and J. Skea, Acid Politics: Environmental and Energy Politics in Britain and Germany (London: Belhaven, 1991); C.C. Park, Acid Rain: Rhetoric and Reality (London: Methuen, 1987).
For an elaborate presentation on the principles of discourse analysis, see M. Hajer, The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernization and the Policy Process, Oxford University Press, 1995).
The best accounts of the history of acid rain are E.B. Cowling, ‘Acid precipitation in historical perspective,’ Environmental Science and Technology, Vol. 16, no. 2, 1982, pp. 110A–23A; G.S. Wedstone, ‘A history of the acid rain issue’, in H. Brooks and C.L. Cooper (eds) Science for Public Policy (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1987).
As it happened, this immediately followed the publication of a paper on rainfall acidity in northern Britain in Nature which revealed that the acidity of rain was comparable with the areas of Scandinavia and North America where fish populations had been depleted. See D. Fowler et al., ‘Rainfall acidity in northern Britain,’ Nature, Vol. 297, 1982, pp. 383–6.
L. Kramme, ‘National and international pressures in environmental policy override neo-classical prescriptions: the case of the EC’s large combustion plant directive. Paper presented at the ECPR Joint Sessions, Paris, 1989.
For the history of air pollution politics in the UK, see E. Ashby and M. Anderson, The Politics of Clean Air (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981).
Lord Derby, in ibid. p. 21.
E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful (London: Abacus, 1974). Another early protagonist of this modernization element in the environmental movement was Amory Lovins with his concept of ‘soft energy paths’. For a detailed discussion, see R. Paehlke, Environmentalism and the Future of Progressive Politics (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1989).
For a good introduction, see A. Weale, The New Politics of Pollution (Manchester University Press, 1992).
Anon., The World Conservation Strategy — Living Resource Conservation for Sustainable Development (Geneva: International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, 1980); Anon., The Conservation and Development Programme for the UK: A Response to the World Conservation Strategy (London: Kogan Page, 1983); Royal Commission on environmental Environmental Pollution, Tenth Report: Tackling Pollution — Experience and Prospects (London: HMSO, 1984); World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future Oxford University Press, 1987).
Department of the Environment (DoE), Our Common Future — A Perspective by the United Kingdom on the Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (London: DoE, 1986).
Lord Marshall, in House of Commons Select Committee on the Environment, Fourth Report: Acid Rain, Vol. 2: Minutes of Evidence (London: HMSO, 1984), p. 20.
Ibid. p. 36.
DoE, The Government Reply to the Fourth Report of the Environment Select Committee (London: HMSO, 1984), p. 3.
This was first acknowledged in a statement by L.E. Reed at the presentation of the DoE report Effects of Airborne Sulphur Compounds on Forests and Freshwaters (Pollution Paper no. 7) (London: HMSO, 1976), before the 1976 Telemark conference (Norway).
DoE, The United Kingdom Environment 1979: Progress of Pollution Control (Pollution Paper no. 16) (London: HMSO, 1979), p. 3.
See, for instance, T. O’Riordan, ‘Culture and the environment in Britain,’ Environmental Management, Vol. 9, no. 2, 1985, pp. 113–20.
DoE, Environmental Standards: A Description of United Kingdom Practice (Pollution Paper no. 11) (London: HMSO, 1977), pp. 7–8.
The best account of the fascinating early years of the Alkali Inspectorate is undoubtedly R.M. MacLeod, ‘The alkali Acts administration, 1863–84: the emergence of the civil scientist,’ Victorian Studies, Vol. 9, no. 2, 1965, pp. 85–112; for a good case study on the more recent abatement practice, see K. Hawkins, Environment and Enforcement (Oxford University Press, 1984).
DoE, Controlling Pollution: Principles and Prospects — The Government’s Reply to the Tenth Report of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (Pollution Paper no. 22) (London: HMSO, 1984), p. 2.
See D. Vogel, National Styles of Regulation (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986, pp. 80, 83.
J.R. Ravetz, ‘Usable knowledge, usable ignorance: incomplete science with policy implications,’ in W. Clark and R. Munn (eds) Sustainable Development of the Biosphere (Cambridge University Press, 1986).
As indeed they did; see House of Commons Select Committee on the European Communities; First Report: Air Pollution, 2 vols (London, HMSO, 1988).
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© 1995 Maarten A. Hajer
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Hajer, M.A. (1995). Acid rain in Great Britain: environmental discourse and the hidden politics of institutional practice. In: Fischer, F., Black, M. (eds) Greening Environmental Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-08357-9_9
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