The Environment and Pollution

The environment and pollution

Like other countries, Britain became more conscious of degradation of the environment during the 1980s. By the 1990s, in almost every sphere of environmental protection, the key criterion for policy was the idea of “sustainability” i.e. the reduction of all forms of environmental degradation to levels that do not cause lasting damage or permanent loss.

With its high population density, Britain is more susceptible than most countries to environment degradation, and thus requires close governmental control and planning in order to protect and regulate all aspects of environment use.

Britain has been struggling with serious air pollution problems for decades. A century ago, it was the sulfur and carbon dioxide from the domestic use of coal that created the notorious mix of smoke and fog popularly known as “smog”. From the 1950s, untreated coal ceased to be used domestically in large cities. Between the 1970s and 1990s, a major effort was made to reduce coal-burning for electricity generation, halving sulfur dioxide emissions from 6.2 million tons in 1970 to 3 million tons in 1994, reducing the poisonous effect of acid rain on forests.

Today nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide emissions, over half of which is derived from motor vehicles, pose the greatest problem to air quality. Each year, several thousand people die prematurely on account of poor air quality, while at least 20 000 chronic cases are admitted to hospital. From 1995, the government set standards and introduced a compulsory annual check on the exhaust gas of every vehicle. But the real answer is to reduce the emissions of each vehicle and also to reduce the number of private vehicles on the roads (22 million in 1997)

The connection between emissions and global warming is now well established. Average temperatures are expected to rise in Britain by 0.2oC every decade up to 2050. The south will get drier and