The authors seek to ascertain if ASEAN can respond to regional human-induced environmental problems given existing problems of national sovereignty and the interest-based character of ASEAN-type associations, since ASEAN’s goal, in contrast to that of the EU, has been regional cooperation rather than regional integration. The aim is to highlight the status of the respective policy frameworks and exemplify areas in which the regions can learn from one another in the field of air pollution, given its global relevance for climate change.

From the late 1950s onward, Helsinki experienced air pollution from energy generation, industries, waste incineration, and traffic. After having been at its worst in the late 1960s the air quality in Helsinki eventually improved remarkably. This paper examines the reasons for this environmentally advantageous outcome, which was achieved in the absence of a particularly successful environmental policy.

Stephen Mosley examines three aspects of Victorian and Edwardian Manchester’s smoke situation: its magnitude and impact on the town, the rhetoric and culture of smoke, and the (unsuccessful) campaigns to control it.

In Britain, a large proportion of the soil and groundwater pollution that occurred during the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century came from gasworks and coke plants…