Photo shows NOAA-9 satellite image of Europe. A severe storm system covers most of the British Isles and patches of cloud can also be seen over Norway, southern Italy, Greece and south-eastern Europe. This false-colour image was data processed by the DFELR in Germany.

Source: European Space Agency/Science Photo Library


Many environmental problems that have come to light in the assessment of Europe's environment are rooted in the increased demand and transformation of natural resources and in the increased emissions and waste associated with current patterns of economic development. While contributing to improved living standards, the unprecedent growth of economic activities during the last few decades, together with the development and spread of new technologies, have significantly affected the state of the environment.

This section examines the causes of changes in Europe's environment by focusing on the pressures induced by human activities ­ the agents and means by which the environment is actually impacted. The ways in which human activities interact with environmental processes are not always obvious. While, for instance, energy production and transportation are clearly related to carbon dioxide emissions and the greenhouse effect, the relationships between other activities and the environment are not straightforward. To understand these interactions, the relationships between the state of the environment and human activities need to be systematically identified and assessed through the pressures they exert on the environment. Causes of environmental change are diverse, but are linked together through production and consumption processes.

People and activities contribute to the alteration of environmental processes in a number of ways:

Chapter 12 examines the links between population trends, production and consumption patterns and environmental change. Chapter 13 addresses the exploitation of natural resources. Emissions to air and water are analysed in Chapter 14, and waste in Chapter 15. Physical fields, such as noise and radiation, are examined in Chapter 16, chemicals and genetically modified organisms in Chapter 17, and natural and technological hazards in Chapter 18.

Each category of pressure described above requires different considerations for its adequate control. Concentrating on individual effects or activities has been shown to be unsatisfactory for identifying adequate solutions. Action programmes dealing with different environmental media or human activities separately have often resulted in environmental problems being moved from one part of the environment to another. The development of an integrated approach has emerged as crucial to understanding the underlying patterns which link environmental changes and human activities. New concepts, such as pollution prevention, clean production and integrated pollution control, have emerged as integrated strategies to reduce the overall environmental impact of production and consumption.