The reading will be:

Rothschild, R. E. (2019). “Poisonous Skies : Acid Rain and the Globalization of Pollution”. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

The book is available for online reading and partial download as PDF through the Royal Danish Liberary.  It can also be purchased as an eText book online and a large chunk of the book is available as a Google Books as well. Contact Nils (bubandt@cas.au.dk) if none of these options work for you, and we will help you.

Before C02 there was SO2 and NOx, sulfur dioxide nitrogen oxide. SO2 and NOx are released as by-products by fossil fuel burning, in particular coal and were the primary agents responsible for acid rain. But what actually happened to acid rain?  It was a huge environmental concern in the 1980s and 1990s. Generated by coal power plants it threatened the conifer and pines forests of the entire northern hemisphere and conjured up apocalyptic images of a future in full protective clothing. And then acid rain disappeared, it seems. Rothschild's monograph tells the history of acid rain.  It also reveals how acid rain was the start of the conception and political action against pollution as a global phenomenon. “Poisonous Skies”, in that sense, writes a chapter in the prehistory of global warming.

Look forward to seeing you again

Pierre, Michael, and Nils