The forests of this ancient continent are sick. The general situation of our woods in the past few years has in fact become so bad that even the United Nations has recently pointed out what serious danger they are in. A U.N. report states that the continual deterioration of the European forests is now a really serious problem, especially in central and eastern Europe.
According to the latest national and international observations, more than a quarter of the 600.000 trees in 32 European countries, in other words, 26,4% of all the trees examined, show clear signs of deterioration. In practical terms, the sick trees have lost 25% of their leaves. This means that there is a serious increase in the deterioration of the forests that has risen by 3,8% in only 12 months. This phenomenon is far too much not to arouse alarm and is unfortunately steadily growing.
In actual fact, many of the aspects connected with the state of the environment on this continent are extremely worrying. The information contained in "The Environment in Europe", a book published by the European Union, examines environmental conditions in European countries and includes the various analyses carried out to study the state of the water, the air, the wild flora and fauna and the urban territory; the results are particularly alarming, not only for countries in Europe, but also those in their near vicinity.
(photo Blue Planet©1996)
This situation is also getting worse thanks to the huge quantities of CO2 (carbon dioxide) that are emitted in cities and areas of heavy traffic. Faced with problems like these, action should be taken immediately to check such a serious emergency before it is too late
In spite of all this, however, there is nothing to stop us from trying to make our cities better places to live in. One of the simplest solutions would be to create more parks and gardens, or even, quite simply, to place as many plants as possible in window boxes and terraces. This would certainly make our cities pleasanter places to live in, as well as being closer to the nature that we do, at times, tend to forget.
