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50 years of Protecting Europe's Environment

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Subido el 18 de septiembre 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 center for the petrochemical industry. 00:00:48
In the 1970s, the air quality situation was very bad. 00:00:54
There was an enormous smoke 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. 00:01:06
Acid rain was destroying Europe's forests and green campaigners were making their presence felt. 00:01:19
Individual countries began to take action and the EEC stepped in with tough new air quality laws. 00:01:24
These days, sulfur 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 ultra-fine 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. 00:02:25
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
As we all generate a kilogram of waste every day, rubbish which pollutes the environment and also uses up the world's resources, as experts in the sustainable use of resources know only too well. 00:03:49
There is a huge stock of raw material in society. 00:04:00
I think there's enough aluminium and steel which could be recycled to support 400 years of economic growth. 00:04:05
It's already here, it's not in the mountains, it's not in the ground, and we can recycle that effectively and maintain our use of that. 00:04:15
The EU has been pushing for better management of waste for more than 30 years. 00:04:24
The aim is to bring Europe even closer to a recycling society and limit our dependence on basic raw materials. 00:04:29
There's legislation to tackle the increasing mountain of old televisions and computers. 00:04:35
Electronic scrap now must be stripped of any hazardous substances and recycled as much as possible. 00:04:40
There are similar rules covering the dismantling of old cars and trucks, dealing with up to 9 million tons of metal and glass every year. 00:04:46
Now there are limits on the amount of wrapping on consumer goods too, and recycled paper is used everywhere. 00:04:53
Newspapers in the EU contain more than 80% recycled material. 00:04:59
The EU strategy for the future focuses on generating less rubbish in the first place and recycling what can't be avoided. 00:05:03
This French TV campaign is already pushing that message home. 00:05:10
The focus is also on new ways of designing and manufacturing products. 00:05:15
Already cars are designed with easy recycling in mind. 00:05:20
Today, about half of the metals, glass and paper produced in the EU are made of recycled materials. 00:05:23
Waste is increasingly becoming an economic resource in its own right. 00:05:29
With growing consumerism, chemicals have become an essential part of our everyday lives. 00:05:34
The European Union has some of the toughest chemical safety laws in the world. 00:05:39
The EU has already introduced a ban on harmful chemical substances, such as asbestos, even having to strip it out of its own Brussels headquarters. 00:05:44
Last year brought a groundbreaking law on the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemicals, REACH for short. 00:05:54
Before REACH, it was up to the authorities to prove that a particular substance was dangerous. 00:06:01
The new rules oblige companies to test the chemicals they produce for dangerous characteristics and show how these chemicals can be handled safely. 00:06:07
All making for a much safer working environment and a healthier Europe. 00:06:15
We could avoid 50,000 cases of professional respiratory illness and 40,000 cases of professional skin complaints, both linked to chemical substances. 00:06:21
The researchers calculated that it could lead to a saving of 3.5 billion euros over 10 years. 00:06:32
Despite all the work done at European level, the sheer scale and speed of our urban living has had a drastic effect on nature and biodiversity. 00:06:46
These children are growing up in a world where more than 4 out of 10 birds and mammals in Europe are under threat of extinction, as well as thousands of plants. 00:06:59
It's not just about the world looking pretty. 00:07:07
Healthy ecosystems are the basis of all life, not just for food, but for purifying air and water, fertilizing soil, discovering new medicines. 00:07:10
The EU began giving special protection to nature in the 1970s. 00:07:19
Its Habitats Directive, for instance, helping to pull back creatures such as the Iberian lynx from the brink of extinction. 00:07:23
Now more than 22,000 different protected sites make up the Natura 2000 network. 00:07:33
Including the Hortabagi National Park in Hungary. 00:07:39
In the 1950s, the area was flooded in a failed attempt to grow rice. 00:07:42
The natural ecological balance was destroyed. 00:07:46
An EU life program has filled in the canals. 00:07:49
Plants not seen in decades are returning. 00:07:52
The park is once again an important resting ground for migratory birds. 00:07:55
And the local economy is boosted by tourism. 00:07:59
Natura 2000 is all about creating places where nature and sustainable economic activity can exist side by side. 00:08:02
The European Union has been a terrific force for recognizing the value of nature. 00:08:10
Let's not forget that something like now 20% of the whole land area of Europe has a kind of protection for nature. 00:08:15
The aim is to halt the loss of Europe's biodiversity by 2010. 00:08:25
A challenge not made any easier by the one issue dominating the environmental scene, climate change. 00:08:33
Since it moved on to the political agenda in the late 80s, Europe has been leading international efforts to fight global warming. 00:08:40
The EU has gone further than other signatories to the Kyoto Protocol in agreeing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions not by 5%, but 8% from 1990 levels by 2012. 00:08:48
In Washington in February, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas addressed international legislators. 00:08:59
He called on them to act together to agree a more stringent carbon cutting scheme for the future. 00:09:06
What I stressed is that it is absolutely necessary in order to have an effective tackling of this global problem, 00:09:12
the cooperation of the European Union and the United States is necessary. 00:09:23
The EU wants developed countries collectively to agree to a binding plan for a 30% cut in emissions below 1990 levels by 2020. 00:09:29
As a first step towards this, the European Union is committed to reducing its own emissions by at least 20% over this period, irrespective of what other countries decide. 00:09:38
Stepping up its program to cut emissions, reducing CO2 from new cars, using more biofuels, setting energy performance standards for new buildings. 00:09:47
The EU also wants to expand its groundbreaking emissions trading scheme to become a global carbon trading network. 00:09:57
Launched in 2005, the innovative scheme allocates emission allowances to companies. 00:10:05
They have an incentive to reduce their carbon output because they can then sell any allowances they don't need. 00:10:12
For Commission President José Manuel Barroso, it's time for a revolution to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. 00:10:19
Europe must lead the world into a new, or maybe one should say, post-industrial revolution. 00:10:27
The development of a low-carbon economy. 00:10:37
We have already left behind our coal-based industrial past. 00:10:42
It is time to embrace our low-carbon future. 00:10:48
The environmental challenges faced by these children 50 years ago and those faced by children today are very different ones. 00:10:53
The European Union has been a major force for protecting the world we live in. 00:11:01
It's not going to stop now. 00:11:04
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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:
554
Fecha:
18 de septiembre de 2007 - 16:58
Visibilidad:
Público
Enlace Relacionado:
European Commission
Duración:
11′ 11″
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:
26.10 MBytes

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