Environment Agency launches annual ‘State of the Environment’ report
More homes protected from flooding, improved bathing waters, better air quality and salmon returning to our rivers. These are just some of the environmental highlights of 2007. But in a report launched recently, the Environment Agency is warning that despite these many improvements, climate change is now the biggest environmental challenge facing the South East and one that is increasingly affecting our lives.
The Environment Agency’s seventh ‘State of the Environment’ report provides an annual environmental health check for the South East. The report for 2007 shows that there have been some significant improvements in the quality of our environment in the South East, with highlights including:
- - Over 12,000 more properties across the South East have been protected from flooding in the last four years;
- - Air quality has improved over the last decade as a result of developing technologies, cleaner fuels and tougher standards placed on industry;
- - Salmon populations are showing signs of stabilising in the Rivers Test and Itchen in Hampshire and are also known to be returning annually to the River Thames;
- - We are now using 6 per cent less water per person than in 2006.
Robert Runcie, regional director for the Environment Agency Thames region, said: “We are very lucky in the South East to benefit from a high quality environment with access to both the coast and the countryside - the improvements we are seeing in areas such as our bathing water, river and air quality and wildlife are helping us all to have a better quality of life. But with climate change increasingly affecting the way we live our lives, our report shows that we still need to do more.”
The Environment Agency’s ‘State of the Environment’ report shows that extreme weather patterns, which will become more frequent as a result of climate change, have already impacted on the South East. Temperature records for April 2007 and the previous twelve month period were the warmest since records began, sea levels continue to rise at above the global and UK averages, heavy rain and drought appears to have affected some otter and water vole populations and summer heat waves are causing higher ozone levels.
The South East has the highest ecological footprint per person - a measure of the resources we use and the waste and pollution we produce.
Mr Runcie continued: “We need to take action now to adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change by flood-proofing housing and reducing water use for instance. But we also need to limit further change and do more to reduce our ecological footprint - landfill is still the biggest method of disposal for our waste and road traffic continues to increase. By making the right choices for the way we live we all have an opportunity to be part of the solution for the long term future of the South East.”
