http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43274
EUROPE: No Consensus on Saving the Soil
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Jul 22 (IPS) - Soil is one of the few major areas of
environmental policy to remain largely outside the purview of
European Union law. Humanity's survival might hinge on whether crops
can continue to be grown in soil, yet just nine of the EU's 27
countries have deemed soil protection a pressing enough issue to have
introduced legislation on the subject at national level.
In 2006, the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, stated
that it wished to remedy this situation by proposing a legal
directive that would apply across the Union. Among its objectives
were to identify all areas at risk of such problems as erosion,
landslides and salinity (the build-up of salt within the soil) over a
five-year period and to compile an inventory of all contaminated
sites over 25 years.
To the casual observer, such aims probably appear sensible and
uncontroversial. But when the Union's environment ministers discussed
them in December last, the proposal was struck down by five
governments -- France, Germany, Britain, the Netherlands and Austria.
The five cited either the likely cost of implementing the initiative
or a belief that soil protection is a topic better left to national
legislation than to the Brussels bureaucracy.
Despite its opposition then, France has agreed to revive discussions
on the dossier during its six months of holding the EU's presidency,
which began just over three weeks ago. While green campaigners have
welcomed the apparent French U-turn, they are perturbed by
indications that the proposal could be diluted.
Among the suggested compromises that have emerged during recent
discussions among EU diplomats are that compiling the inventories
would no longer be compulsory and that they would not have to be made
public. "France is going in the wrong direction," said John Hontolez,
secretary-general of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), an
alliance of 143 organisations. "It is seriously weakening the text."
Hontolez suggested that the political debate that has arisen as a
result of the recent spike in global food prices underscored the
necessity of effective legislation on soil.
"What we hear from most politicians in response to the food crisis is
that we have to go back to the old policy of increasing the
productivity of Europe's soils," he said. "This ignores the fact that
productivity levels have come at a price. If you now focus
productivity on loosening the use of agro-chemicals, increasing the
use of fertilisers and ploughing up grasslands, I'm afraid you will
be destroying the agricultural resource base in Europe even faster."
According to the Commission, soil degradation could be depriving the
EU economy of some 38 billion euros (60 billion dollars) a year.
Shielding soil from further damage is considered vital if the worst
possible consequences of climate change are to be averted. EU soil is
estimated to contain some 70 billion tonnes of organic carbon. That
is roughly equivalent to one-tenth of all carbon that has become
accumulated in the atmosphere. Peatlands, in particular, could hold
up to 60 percent of all the carbon stocked in European soils, and
many ecologists regard it as essential that the carbon is kept in the
ground rather than released.
Soil acts as what scientists call a 'carbon sink' -- it can absorb
about 20 percent of all emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main
gas triggering global warming that are attributed to human activity.
Whereas organic agriculture can help ensure that soil continues
playing a major role in diverting carbon from the atmosphere,
degradation of the soil leads to large-scale releases of CO2. Each
year British soil loses about 0.6 percent of its organic matter, and
the resulting increase in CO2 emissions has been compared to putting
an extra five million cars on the road.
"While science tells us how soil originated, the production process
takes millions of years," said Ladislav Miko, a senior environment
official in the European Commission. "It is effectively a
non-renewable resource. We cannot afford to wait for new soil to be
created as it simply takes too long."
Miko added: "We have seen quite scary figures (on the extent of soil
degradation), and yet this is still not enough to get an overall
agreement. The existing legal framework is clearly not sufficient."
Gerassimos Arapis, professor at the Agricultural University of
Athens, said that 500,000 sites in the EU are known to be
contaminated, but about 3.5 million could be contaminated. He said
the proposed directive would give much leeway to national governments
to decide how ambitious they should be in protecting the soil, and
argued that greater clarity is required about how implementation of
the law will be financed.
Ronan Uhel from the European Environmental Agency, an EU body based
in Copenhagen, said there is a need for greater research on the
extent of soil degradation in Europe. "The knowledge we have at hand
on a European scale is still very limited." (END/2008)
*** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
material is distributed, without profit, for research and educational
purposes only. ***
__._,_.___
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/envecolnews/message/6825;_ylc=X3oDMTM0bnZyMXUxBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzk0OTE0MjkEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NzI0ODc0BG1zZ0lkAzY4MjUEc2VjA2Z0cgRzbGsDdnRwYwRzdGltZQMxMjE2ODEzMzUwBHRwY0lkAzY4MjU->Messages
in this topic (1)
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/envecolnews/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJwaXBqN3IwBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzk0OTE0MjkEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NzI0ODc0BG1zZ0lkAzY4MjUEc2VjA2Z0cgRzbGsDcnBseQRzdGltZQMxMjE2ODEzMzUw?act=reply&messageNum=6825>Reply
(via web post) |
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/envecolnews/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJlODdzcHBtBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzk0OTE0MjkEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NzI0ODc0BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA250cGMEc3RpbWUDMTIxNjgxMzM1MA-->Start
a new topic
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/envecolnews/messages;_ylc=X3oDMTJlcmJ1NmFhBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzk0OTE0MjkEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NzI0ODc0BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA21zZ3MEc3RpbWUDMTIxNjgxMzM1MA-->Messages
|
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/envecolnews/links;_ylc=X3oDMTJmMnMxMThrBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzk0OTE0MjkEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NzI0ODc0BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2xpbmtzBHN0aW1lAzEyMTY4MTMzNTA->Links
|
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/envecolnews/members;_ylc=X3oDMTJlNTlsc2poBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzk0OTE0MjkEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NzI0ODc0BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA21icnMEc3RpbWUDMTIxNjgxMzM1MA-->Members
To subscribe to this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
For more options, go to:
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/envecolnews/>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/envecolnews/
<http://groups.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTJkYnJqa3FwBF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzk0OTE0MjkEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NzI0ODc0BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2dmcARzdGltZQMxMjE2ODEzMzUw>
