environmental Protection - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1981 - 60 Pfennig

Environmental problems and the need to make our environment more humane. have been the subject of intense discussion for several years. Citizens have recognized that one of our most important tasks is to preserve the natural foundations of our environment for future generations. The protection of the environment requires our long-term economic well-being. In various fields, eg. As in the air and water pollution, considerable progress has already been made. Nevertheless, much remains to be done. Environmental protection is everyone's business: - Whoever throws waste out of the moving car pollutes the landscape. - Whoever makes too much noise at the wrong time harasses his neighbors. - Who takes too much detergent, overloaded excessively our waters, without therefore clean to wash. - Glass and paper are reusable raw materials and are not waste. - Spray cans with chlorofluorocarbons as propellant probably destroy the ozone layer of the earth's atmosphere, which acts as a protective filter against carcinogenic rays. - In the production of paints, too much cadmium and other heavy metals are used, which later poison the environment and because of their storage in the soil can render it unusable for agriculture in the long term. - Waste may only be released into the sea if it can not be disposed of ashore. - Municipal transport planning, as well as federal and state governments, must take into account the interests of environmental protection and nature conservation and must use the natural foundations of life (water, air, climate, soil) only gently. The main purpose of the Federal Government's measures is to prevent environmental damage and burdens from occurring in the first place. For the prevention of imminent dangers or even the elimination of incurred damage is often more difficult and more costly than the precautionary assessment of a public or private project. Only the forward-looking environmental impact assessment can avoid bad planning and bad investments. Here, the participation of citizens affected by environmental pollution is of particular importance. It can bring out additional information, including ecological aspects, and make it easier to accept environmental decisions. Special efforts are devoted to the further exploration of today's unknown effects of substances and processes. The Federal Government has made this precautionary principle the fundamental principle of its environmental policy and has already enshrined it in its 1971 environmental program. In the environmental report 1976, the continuation of the environmental program, it confirmed the basic principles of its comprehensive environmental policy, took stock of the measures carried out and set further goals on the basis of the experience gained. Now that the legal basis has been largely unanimous, the focus of the coming years will be on implementing and implementing the regulations. Countries, municipalities and districts have already taken numerous environmental protection measures. The problems of land use and land use and their often irreversible consequences for valuable ecosystems as well as climate change and their repercussions on living conditions will need to be given special attention in the future. (Text: Federal Ministry of the Interior, Bonn)