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Environmental protection in Germany and the specific role of spatial planning - An introduction
Environmental Issues Today
A visitor from India may be surprised:
pollution and its control is not longer a major issue in environmental
protection. The problems currently faced by Germans are different from those
found in India. Industries are effectively controlled and their emissions and
discharged effluents do no longer cause adverse environmental impacts. More
strict production or emission standards would be technically unfeasible.
In-house environmental management has been successfully implemented in
most, if not in all industries. Environmental costs have been economically as
well as technically internalised. An effluent is not considered waste but part
of the products produced. Treatment technologies have advanced tremendously
during the last three decades both in terms of degree of treatment efficiency as
well as in terms of cost reduction. A development spearheaded no longer by the
river co-operatives but by the industries themselves. Discharged BOD from a
common effluent treatment plants are currently less than 5 mg/l. And even with
all those efforts Germany like most other countries spends less than 1.5% of her
gross National Product (GNP) on environmental protection. That means that
society spends more on cigarettes or cosmetics than on its environment.
But unsolved environmental problems still exist and will require the
quest for new solutions. Among them - apart from global environmental problems
such as depletion of ozone layer or global warming - are the following:
- The "feminisation of waters": caused by discharge of hormones and enzymes
from animal husbandry or human consumption (the "pill") aquatic fauna has been
severely affected and altered: there are river stretches found where 90% of
certain species (e.g. fishes) are female. Future consequences are unknown as are
possible remedies.
- The "Waldsterben" ("forest mortality"). Air pollution has over the years
caused a drastic change in soil properties and ecology with the consequence that
vast parts of German forest are severely damaged or even destroyed. Only 30% of
all forests remain unaffected. Fertilising with lime (from the flue gas
de-sulfurisation plants) is applied but the trend continues. Germans do have a
special relation with their forests and "Waldsterben" is felt as a emotional
pain by large parts of the population. A major cause are acid rains: ironically
success in dust precipitation of flue gases has made the emitted pollution more
acidic (due to the lack of alkaline fly-ash).
- Controlling non-point application of chemicals (fertilisers, pesticides) in
areas with intensive agricultural use. Practices of agricultural subsidies
within the EU makes it often difficult to deal effectively with this issue.
- Continuing ecological depletion and degradation: Caused by intensive use -
particular agricultural practises - the ecological as well as landscape
diversity has been declined over the last century, a process still continuing.
Of higher plants 35% are red-listed as are 50% of birds and 85% of amphibian
species. 70% of habitats are in danger of extinction. (the process of ecological
degradation of forest diversity could be successfully reversed during the last
decades)
- The "first flush" in a treatment plant after a longer dry spell. Such waters
are often heavily contaminated by the run-off from sealed surfaces. These
peak-loads put heavy stress on the biology of the treatment system. Remedy:
increasing storm water retention capacities today already considered during the
planning stage (lay-out plan)
- Indoor-pollution. The extensive use of chemicals in construction and
interior outfit of buildings (wood conservation, wood-chip boards, laminations,
glues, panels, insulation etc.) has resulted in increased indoor contamination.
This complex is up till now not comprehensively understood even if the use of
the most harmful substances has been banned. Till now allergies - eventually
caused by indoor pollution - are on the raise.
- Conversion of lands into human settlements. Consumption of lands for further
human settlements is still high, leading to ecological depletion. Drastic
reduction of land consumption is one of the main focal areas in achieving Agenda
21.
- The lack of political will to effectively implement a preventive
environmental policy (which runs sometimes against economic interests). Although
Germany is among the leading countries in concept development of preventive
environmental protection (particularly in the field of environmental spatial
planning) there is an obvious lack of political will to implement such concepts.
As elsewhere in Europe the tendency is rather to first create an environmental
problem (and to make a handsome profit out of it) and then to clean up the
environmental mess (and to reap an additional handsome profit). Typical example
is the so called "green dot" found on each German packing material: the consumer
has to pay for sophisticated packing of all goods and then additionally for its
recycling. This however, is so badly managed that it is very costly (again to be
paid by the consumer) but not at all environmentally sound (intelligent
declaration of packing materials and their separated collection is lacking or
poorly managed). However, the political will to regulate the use of packing
material in an environmentally sound manner is lacking. Another area are the
agricultural subsidies granted by the EU. The EU subsidises sheep husbandry in
Ireland with the effect that this is only feasible by causing severe
overgrazing. Instead of scrapping such subsidies the EU opted rather for laying
up large programmes for the ecological rehabilitation of those lands affected by
overgrazing (but continuing those subsidies).
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