2 major environmental problems in Europe that need immediate attention

Through this report I am bringing to light two of the most common environment related problems that European countries need to discuss openly and collaborate to resolve.

Forest degradation

Forests cover 43% of Europe's land area and Germany and Austria are some of the more heavily forested places in the EU. Forest degradation in the EU mainly occurs because of 2 reasons, air pollution and forest fires.

Air pollution threatens the forest area more in Central and Eastern Europe. A survey in 1992 showed that of 113 tree species in 34 European countries, 24% of trees were damaged and that their defoliation exceeded 25%. Among these species, 10% of trees were suffering from discoloration. In Czech Republic (A neighboring country to Austria), as much as 54% of forests suffered from irreversible damage.

Forest fires are a major concern in Southern Europe. The analysis of the damage dealt comes from large-scale spatial observations of European-wide surveys. However, many times the cause-effect relationships are not identified which makes it difficult to identify the problem at hand. Looking at the statistics, an average of 700 000 ha of wooded land is burnt each year by a total of 60 000 fires in Europe.

Acidification

Acidification is a complex procedure where sulfur and nitrogen dioxides are emitted into the atmosphere because of combustion of fossil fuels. These gasses are then converted into acids which lead to a series of undesired changes in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems after deposition. The topic mainly highlights adverse biological and chemical effects in lakes, soils and forests as a result of deposition of acidifying substances in amounts exceeding critical loads.

Southern Scandinavia is facing a major problem because severe acidification of freshwater is causing widespread fish kills. The problem has existed as far back as the 1920s but has never been brought to light. At this point over 13 000 km2  of water area is devoid of fish.

Acidification and high concentrations of ozone and sulfur dioxide in the air is playing a role in damaging coniferous forests all around Europe. Reports have already been made in the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Poland and the Slovak Republic.

There are a number of agreements that are being discussed in Europe to solve this problem right now, however, even though acid deposition is expected to decrease in the EU following emission reductions, critical loads will still be exceeded in more than half the area.

References:

https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/92-827-5122-8/page014.html

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2396102?seq=1/subjects#page_scan_tab_contents