European Union

1
European Union

• Environment

2
Introduction

• Optimistic Outlook
• -gt Emissions of toxic substances declined
• -gt Dangerous pesticides and chemicals banned
  or restricted
• -gt Rates of recycling are up
• -gt Environment in EU - protection
• Only a few problems solved
• -gt Problems of the future much harder
  comprehended and brought under control
• -gt Individuals do not understand the
  consequences of their actions

3
Protecting the Water

• UE Goal cleaning all waters by the
• end of 2010
• 7000 million - regions with less
• than 75 average income
• Portugal from 60 (1995) to 95
• (2005)
• Ireland from 20 (1990) to 80
• (2005)

4
Protection of the Life

• -gt Industrial Development threat
• -gt Biodiversity - decrease
• -gt Natura 2000 program completed in 2005
• -gt Protection vs Development
• -gt EU supports environmental projects -gt 60
  million - elephant and jungle conservation

5
Protection of other areas

• Protection of Forests
• -gt 127,8 million ha in EU
• -gt Increase of 10 from 1960 to 1990
• -gt 1995 2000 650.000 ha created
• -gt 130.000 ha rehabilitated
• -gt 50 million - tropical forests

• Protection of Air
• -gt Problems depletion of stratospheric O3,
  controlling acidification and climate change.
• -gt Greenhouse gas effect -gt attempted to be
  reduce every year
• -gt 60 areas from EU suffer from
  acidification
• -gt Balance between rail, road, air and
  shipping.

6
Looking East

• Environment supported by PHARE and TACIS
  programmes
• Countries of SU environment a priority for
  TACIS
• Ten Countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
  Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia,
  Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria) -gt ratified Europe
  Agreements

• Strategy
• emphasis of environment
• in the accession
• - cooperation
• - advice -gt investment

7
Then and Now

• While the effect of human activity on the global
  climate is hotly debated, physical signs of
  environmental change are all around us.
• Some scientists say an increase in the rate of
  melting of the world's glaciers is evidence of
  global warming.
• Argentina's Upsala Glacier was once the biggest
  in South America, but it is now disappearing at a
  rate of 200 meters per year.
• Other scientists say its reduction is due to
  complicated shifts in glacial dynamics and local
  geology.

8
Then and Now

• Rising tides
• Some scientists predict that a warmer climate
  will trigger more violent storms, which will
  cause increased rates of coastal erosion.
• This is a section of shoreline at Cape Hatteras
  in North Carolina in the USA, pictured in 1999
  and 2004. The southern United States and
  Caribbean region were battered by a series of
  powerful hurricanes last year.
• Rising sea levels are also expected to speed up
  coastal erosion.

9
Then and Now

• Vanishing islands
• Other parts of the world could face even more
  drastic change.
• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
  (IPCC), a consortium of several thousand
  independent scientists, predicts that sea levels
  could rise by between 9 and 88cm in the next
  century.
• This would threaten low-lying islands such as
  Tuvalu in the Pacific. These images, taken on the
  same day this year, show the effects of a higher
  than usual tide.

10
Then and Now

• No snow
• As the climate warms up, mountainous regions may
  experience lower levels of snowfall.
• This image shows Mount Hood in Oregon at the same
  time in late summer in 1985 and 2002

11
Then and Now

• More pests
• Tree-eating wood beetles are likely to benefit
  from a warmer climate and reproduce in
  ever-increasing numbers.
• These images show damage to White Spruce trees in
  Alaska caused by the pests.

12
The Climate Change

• -Climate change -gt big threat
• -In the last century temperature increased by
  0.6ºC.
• -In this century temperature will increase by a
  further 1.4 to 5.6.
• -Increased level of the sea
• -Cause The greenhouse gases
• -Kyoto Protocol

13
The Ozone Hole

• 1985 A thinning of the ozone layer is
  discovered the O3 Hole
• Cause CFCs used as aerosol propellants and
  refrigerants
• Ozone destruction Greater at the poles
• 1996 Scandinavia, Greenland and Siberia -gt 45
  depletion
• 1997 Antarctic hole 24 Km

14
The Ozone Layer

• O3 small concentration into atmosphere
• 90 - in Stratosphere layer between 10 km and
  50 km
• The layer filters sun ultraviolet
• Threat aerosols, volcanic eruptions etc.