The Richard Spooner Column: Pollution revolution is nothing new�

While I am full of admiration for the people who are campaigning for climate change, I was reminded the other day that much of the cause of global pollution lays firmly at the door of younger generations, some of whom are now campaigning for a greener world.

Obviously, during my long life (208 years since you ask) I 've seen many changes, among them the climate. And I was given a few interesting reminders by a friend on Facebook yesterday - Earth Day 2021 as it happened.

For instance, as recently as the 1950s and 60s, we had milk delivered to our doorsteps in bottles, which were washed and returned for re-use. Today, most of our milk comes in plastic bottles.

And the milkman - and the bread rounds-men for that matter - made their deliveries in electric vehicles.

Loose food in shops was wrapped in brown paper bags, as were quarter pounds of sweets. And you walked to school, not get delivered there in your mum 's gas-guzzling 4x4.

For holidays, many families hired caravans near the British seaside and travelled there by train. No fuel-hungry jets to whizz you to the Costa del Sol in those days.

So it 's apparent that much of today 's wasteful society can be blamed on a fairly small window of roughly the past 50 years. Ok, we had smoke-billowing factories and trains before then but on a much smaller scale.

And one of the few silver linings to come out of the coronavirus pandemic is the improvement in air quality, highlighted in the Apple TV documentary The Year Earth Changed.

The change became apparent only a few days into the pandemic when air quality in Los Angeles improved dramatically and the amount of toxic gases in China decreased.

I know from several trip to India that you can taste the air pollution there. But during their lockdowns smog and air pollution disappeared to such an extent that the Himalayas could be seem from certain locations for the first time in generations.

And the film also shows that the absence of humans during the lockdown has given animals the chance to thrive again.

The blurb for the documentary says: “Awe-inspiring visuals of nature and wildlife, this time accompanied by drone shots of deserted city centres, are mixed with rousing music. The Year Earth Changed also benefits hugely from Sir David Attenborough 's exquisite narration. ”

Sir David has, of course, brought stunning visuals of nature into our living rooms and he proves that the “lives of animals have not only been enhanced for a couple of months because of our enforced sabbatical, previously endangered species have been able to increase their numbers in droves ”.

And what better news could we have on Earth Day than President Biden 's announcement that the US will halve emissions by 2030..?

Richard Spooner was the first president of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce in 1813.