Smoking chimneys of a coal-fired power plant on a winter day, Kazakhstan, 2024/Max Zolotukhin/Getty Images
The word ‘smog’ is an English neologism consisting of two words, smoke and fog. The idea emerged in nineteenth-century England, a period when the nation was fondly nicknamed ‘Foggy Albion’. The word ‘Albion’ itself is an ancient Greek term for the land that would eventually become Britain. Interestingly, the association with fog wasn’t just about the weather. At the time, it was also often attributed to the cunning of British diplomats, known for manipulating situations discreetly. However, fog had long been a mundane aspect of English life. It soon became apparent that dozens of other cities, including Almaty, could also be called foggy.