1. Europe’s Environmental Issues

2. Essential Question
How has Europe dealt with the major environmental issues of acid rain, air pollution, and nuclear disaster?

3. Air Pollution
Many of the world’s largest and most industrialized countries are in Europe.
Paris, London, Berlin, Rome, Amsterdam
These cities tend to have lots of factories, lots of traffic, and produce a lot of air pollution.

4. Air Pollution
Factories and power plants pump pollutants into Europe’s atmosphere.
The country with the worst air pollution in Europe is the UNITED KINGDOM.

5. Air Pollution in the United Kingdom
London, capital of UK, is famous for air pollution
Word “smog” first used in 1905 to describe air in London (thick fog + smoke)

6. The Great Smog of 1952
Smog was so dense that for 4 days people in London could not see what was in front of them.
Transportation slowed, crime increased, & thousands of people died from the pollution
People around the world became frightened & worried about the quality of the air they were breathing
London Fog- Video

8. Sources of Air Pollution
In the past, the major source was smoke (CO2) from burning coal (factories)
Today, exhaust from cars & buses are also the sources

9. Effects of Air Pollution
Asthma and pneumonia are linked to vehicle emissions
Burns the lungs, nose, and eyes, and endangers human life
High air pollution keeps children & senior citizens indoors
Blackens buildings
& harms wildlife

10. Acid Rain

11. Acid Rain
The country with the worst acid rain in Europe is GERMANY.

12. What is Acid Rain?
Air Pollution leads to health problems, and can affect the environment through ACID RAIN.
Acid rain is caused by factories and car exhaust.
The pollution gets into the clouds and causes the rain to be acidic.

14. What is Acid Rain?
Acid rain is a result of air pollution. When any type of fuel burns, lots of different chemicals are produced and released into the air and mix with water in the clouds.
The rain from these clouds then falls as very weak acid.
It’s not acidic enough to burn your skin, but it’s very harmful for the environment.
Acid Rain- Video

15. Germany is Its Own Worst Enemy…
Main source of acid rain is smoke from factories (burning fuels like natural gas, coal, & oil)
Germany is a top manufacturing country—leads the world in cars, steel, & chemical products—so it depends on these factories
Cars & buses also produce harmful gases.
Germans own more cars than people of most other countries do

16. Acid Rain in Germany
Acid rain has destroyed nearly half of the Black Forest!
This has really harmed Germany’s economy because timber is an important export. It brings in millions of dollars to Germany. The timber business provides jobs.
No forest? No jobs. No jobs? Poor economy.

17. Acid Rain in Germany Acid rain is also harmful to plant life
aquatic animals
humans (cancer)
buildings and statues (eroded).

19. What is Europe doing to fix these problems?...

20. European Environmental Policies
In Western Europe, nations are trying to lessen pollution.
They are spending money and researching new ways to produce power that cause less environmental damage.
In Eastern Europe, few nations are researching new technologies
They have less money

21. European Environmental Policies
Governments are also researching alternative fuel sources for cars which would lessen air pollution and acid rain.
Rather than being made of oil, these fuels come from plant soil.

22. European Union
Most countries in Europe are members of a group called the European Union.
Since its formation in 1993, the EU has passed policies designed to fight acid rain, improve air quality, restrict toxic waste, and reduce pollution.

23. The Chernobyl Accident 26 April 1986

24. Where is Chernobyl? -In Northern Ukraine -10 miles away from Belarus
-80 miles North of Kiev

25. Chernobyl, Ukraine
In 1986 the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station experienced a disaster.
One of the nuclear reactors exploded.
Radioactive material entered the water, soil, and air.
The pollution traveled to other countries in Northern Europe and Scandinavia.
Chernobyl- Video

26. Immediate Impact
- 203 people were hospitalized immediately. 31 of them eventually died. Most of these people were workers in the plant or local firefighters.
- NW winds from the Black Sea carried the radiation for miles in the following days. Scandinavian detectors picked up on the abundance of radiation, but the Soviet government denied everything.

27. West and Northwest Winds
carried radiation

28. The Clean Up “Liquidators” Robots
These were firemen who helped put out the fires and helped clean up the radiation
Most did not realize the dangers of radiation.
Many later died from radiation, because they didn’t wear protection.
An estimated 8,000-20,000 to date have died
Robots
United States supplied
Specifically designed to enter reactor core and help build the sarcophagus

29. Clean Up
Approximately 300,000 to 600,000 liquidators were involved in the cleanup of the 30 km evacuation zone around the plant in the years following the meltdown.

30. Evacuation
-Following the accident hundreds of thousands of people had to be evacuated and between 1990 and 1995 an additional 210,000 people were resettled.

31. Cement buildings built in the months after disaster
Containment
Cement buildings built in the months after disaster
5,000 tons of sand thrown on top of reactor core

32. After Chernobyl

33. The Children of Ukraine
Children were much more affected by Chernobyl and the radiation, due to their weaker immune systems.
sickness rate among children almost tripled
Threat to gene pool—fewer children being born.
The following problems have increased in children:
heart and circulatory diseases, malignant tumors, and disorders of the nervous system, sensory organs, of the bone, muscle and connective tissue system

34. Children cont’d
It is estimated that 1 out of every 4 infants will develop thyroid abnormalities.
The normal rate of thyroid cancer would be only one in 1 million.
In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, had the authorities supplied the children with preventive potassium iodine, it would have prevented many of the thyroid cancer cases.

35. Thyroid cancer
The thyroid gland is the most vulnerable organ to radiation in the human body.
Normally, this is a rare disease, with only 1 case per year being reported in Belarus before the Chernobyl accident.
Thyroid cancer can take years to show it’s effects.
There has been a 2,400% increase in the rates of thyroid cancer in Belarus since 1986.
In the Homyel region of Belarus, the region closest to Chernobyl, there has been a 100-fold increase in thyroid cancer.

36. Other problems… Food & Water Lives ruined
Milk—Farmers have to watch the radiation level in milk.
Fish—Cannot be eaten, as water absorbs radiation and fats concentrate it
Radioactive Floods every spring
Lives ruined
Suicide and depression
Even healthy people were traumatized

37. Chernobyl Today The plant has been shut down by Ukraine.
The cement building is falling apart, due to the quick emergency construction of it.
The UN estimates that up to 9 million people have been affected directly or indirectly by the fallout.
The full consequences will not be seen for at least another 50 years.
ia/Chernobyl-15%20years.htm
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38. Chernobyl Today www.calguard.ca.gov/ ia/Chernobyl-15%20years.htm
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