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50 years or Protecting Europe's Environment

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Subido el 9 de agosto de 2007 por EducaMadrid

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Today the European Union has the most environmentally friendly arsenal of rules in the world and has done more to tackle pressing ecological problems, such as climate change, than any other major power. But it has not always been like this. Caring for the environment did not feature in the Treaty of Rome, the document that gave birth to the modern day EU. Yet environmental problems were never far away. Europe’s love affair with the car was moving into top gear, industry was busy belching out pollutants and raw sewage was being pumped into our rivers and seas.

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If Europe were once more united in the sharing of its common inheritance, 00:00:00
there would be no limit to the happiness, the prosperity and glory its three or four hundred million people would enjoy. 00:00:05
If Europe were once more united... 00:00:13
Fifty years ago, when the common market was born, what people wanted most was peace and prosperity for Europe. 00:00:21
Caring for the environment didn't feature in the founding treaty of Rome. 00:00:27
Yet environmental problems were not far away. 00:00:31
Europe's love affair with the car was moving into top gear. Industry was building up. 00:00:34
By the 1970s, it was clear that minimum standards needed to be set for water and air pollution, as well as waste management. 00:00:39
The port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands was already a major centre for the petrochemical industry. 00:00:48
In the 1970s, the air quality situation was very bad. 00:00:54
There was an enormous smog problem, just like London, which was very bad for people. 00:01:01
We still have memories of schools being closed because it wasn't reasonable to send kids to school, to allow them outside. 00:01:08
Acid rain was destroying Europe's forests and green campaigners were making their presence felt. 00:01:18
Individual countries began to take action and the EEC stepped in with tough new air quality laws. 00:01:24
These days, sulphur dioxide levels in Rotterdam are just 20% what they were in 1970. 00:01:30
Now industrial plants all over Europe must declare what pollutants they release into the air on an online EU emissions register. 00:01:36
But there are new pressures on the quality of Europe's air, from emissions of ultrafine particles which, when breathed in, lodge deep in the lungs. 00:01:45
As a result, researchers reckon that our lives are all being shortened by nine months. 00:01:53
Technology has been developed to filter out the particles in new diesel engines. 00:01:57
But domestic heating systems emit large amounts of this fine dust, and that's the next big challenge ahead. 00:02:02
Fifty years ago, Europe's polluted rivers also needed help. 00:02:09
The Rhine crosses six countries, a source of water for 50 million people. 00:02:14
After the Second World War, the river was little more than an open sewer, as local people well remember. 00:02:19
Summer 1964 was the last time that I swam in the Rhine, and it smelled so bad and was so polluted that I felt nauseous and was sick. 00:02:27
And I said then I wouldn't swim here anymore, and I haven't done so since then. 00:02:36
But I would now rather like to swim across the Rhine again, but I don't dare to anymore because I'm a bit out of practice. 00:02:40
In the 1970s, Germany and the other countries bordering the Rhine, with backing from the EEC, began to clean it up, installing treatment stations and working closely with industry. 00:02:50
But in 1986, a fire triggered a catastrophic chemical spill in Switzerland, which wiped out all aquatic life in the Rhine downstream for 400 kilometers. 00:03:01
This called for drastic action, and a more tightly coordinated cross-border approach achieved near miracles. 00:03:10
Ten years later, salmon were back swimming in the river. 00:03:16
This integrated approach in the Rhine served as a model for current EU water legislation. 00:03:19
Now, instead of managing a river and its water quality according to national frontiers, the whole territory of a river is taken into account. 00:03:25
And while Europe's rivers were being cleaned up, so were the seas we swim in. 00:03:34
Since 1990, there have been huge improvements, and now nine out of ten bathing areas are considered to be clean and safe. 00:03:38
As Europe's become richer, we've become a continent of consumers. 00:03:45
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Idioma/s:
en
Niveles educativos:
▼ Mostrar / ocultar niveles
      • Nivel Intermedio
Autor/es:
The European Union
Subido por:
EducaMadrid
Licencia:
Reconocimiento - No comercial - Sin obra derivada
Visualizaciones:
609
Fecha:
9 de agosto de 2007 - 9:49
Visibilidad:
Público
Enlace Relacionado:
European Commission
Duración:
03′ 50″
Relación de aspecto:
4:3 Hasta 2009 fue el estándar utilizado en la televisión PAL; muchas pantallas de ordenador y televisores usan este estándar, erróneamente llamado cuadrado, cuando en la realidad es rectangular o wide.
Resolución:
448x336 píxeles
Tamaño:
19.84 MBytes

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