UK's out vote is a red alert for the environment

[femmedem]

"...The Brexit vote leaves it highly uncertain which protections will remain in place and the prospect of improving them seems remote. Ukip’s Nigel Farage, the politician who did more than anyone to force the EU referendum, doesn’t even think climate change is a problem and wants to scrap pollution limits on power stations.

With 400,000 early deaths a year from air pollution – 40,000 in the UK – the EU saw things differently and set new legal limits in 2010. Many UK cities and towns remain above those limits today and campaigners have used EU rules to successfully sue the UK government. But UK ministers are even now fighting new EU rules to reduce early deaths. Pollution does not stop in its tracks at national borders, and 88% of environment professionals in the UK think an EU-wide policy is needed.

Earlier legal action from the EU forced the UK to clean up its sewage-strewn beaches, while many of the protections for nature and wildlife across the nation stem from EU rules. Here again, the people whose job it is to safeguard these wonderful places and reverse the damage of the past think leaving the EU is a mistake: 66% say there will be a lower level of legal protection for wildlife and habitats against 30% who think it will improve..."

Much more at link.

[Person 2713]

1. A sad part of Brexit. I was sad here when Bush co started pushing back environmental safeguards

[libdem4life]

2. So many unintended consequences...staggering ripples of disaster.

[pampango]

3. From the ‘red-tape’ slashing desires of the Brexiters...all indications are for weaker environmental

protections.

The 75% of 18-24-year-old Britons who voted to remain in the EU must be feeling betrayed by older generations today. Why? Because the UK’s membership of the EU has been a virtually unalloyed good for the environment.

With 400,000 early deaths a year from air pollution – 40,000 in the UK – the EU saw things differently and set new legal limits in 2010. Many UK cities and towns remain above those limits today and campaigners have used EU rules to successfully sue the UK government. But UK ministers are even now fighting new EU rules to reduce early deaths. Pollution does not stop in its tracks at national borders, and 88% of environment professionals in the UK think an EU-wide policy is needed.

Earlier legal action from the EU forced the UK to clean up its sewage-strewn beaches, while many of the protections for nature and wildlife across the nation stem from EU rules. Here again, the people whose job it is to safeguard these wonderful places and reverse the damage of the past think leaving the EU is a mistake: 66% say there will be a lower level of legal protection for wildlife and habitats against 30% who think it will improve.

The EU has also driven a revolution in recycling and waste.

Thanks for finding and posting this article, femmedem.

[femmedem]

4. You're welcome, and thanks for posting this excerpt.

There is so much in this article. It was hard to choose which section to post.