Conservation in germany

[Dietmar Tietz]

On Wed, 18 Jan 1995, MONICA YOUNG wrote:

> Hi,
> 	I was wondering if anybody has any information on the state of germany's 
> environment and its conservation policies.
> 					Thanks,
> 					Monica Young
> 
> 
Germany has a much higher population per unit area than Canada or even 
the USA.  It is a highly industrialized country.  This situation causes a 
number of environmental problems, i.e., dying of trees, smog and high 
ozone values, particularly in the summer.  There are a lot of 
environmental initiatives.  Some of them are supported by the so-called 
Green Party which is represented in the Federal and many State and local 
Parliaments.  Some of the activities for environmental protection are: 
Recycling of paper, plastics and glass (unfortunately not much is done 
with aluminum cans), reduction of packaging materials, etc.  It took 
about 15 years longer here than in North America to introduce unleaded 
gas and cars with a catalytic converter.  Still we do not have gasoline 
with less aromatic compounds (benzene) and other nasty impurities.  
People drive very fast (100 Mi./h and more) on the Autobahns causing 20 
to 30% more consumption of gas than necessary, however, there have been 
some initiatives to reduce speed limits during periods of smog alarm.  
Most modern cars in Germany have an about 50 % lower gas consumption than 
10 years ago.

I hope this gives you some ideas.

Dietmar Tietz