Killing the Swedes
D ritain's decision not even to attempt to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions by 30 per cent before 1993 is a shaming one; and the arguments used to justify it are specious. If acid rain did not exist, as the Daily Telegraph last Tuesday claimed, it would be very difficult to explain the an- nual sharp drop in Ph levels — and increase of acidity — when the snow melts every spring in Scandinavia. Nor are the ill effects of acid rain confined to dead forests and lakes. The real problem is that the acid leaches out of the soil heavy metals like aluminium and tungsten that are extremely poisonous even to human beings. When this cocktail reaches the ground water, as it already has in the most vulnerable areas of Sweden, and is then drawn up in wells and drunk by human beings, the results are like- ly to prove most unpleasant. The British Government seems determined to repeat its mistakes over lead in petrol; but not even the Spectator, which has questioned many aspects of modern Swedish society, ad- vocates the mass poisoning of Swedes as an instrument of British industrial policy.
Previous page
