Ten billion dying trees

Press, 20 April 1982, Page 21

Ten billion dying trees

All over Germany the trees are dying. Hardy old evergreens that have flourished for centuries are shedding their needles and turning brown. Already, it is. said, 10 billion trees —?h'alf the country's conifers — are ailing. Now scientists' ’fearthat the Black Forest itself may be doomed. The threat is not some virulent new strain of arboreal plague like Dutch elm disease, but “acid rain.” a modern phenomenon which is emerging as one of the world’s fastest-growing environmental horrors.

Most scientists agree that the problem begins with the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas. In the 1960 s and early 19705, high-rise chimneys were seen as the best answer to atmospheric pollution — an aerial variation of sweeping the dirt under the carpet. Build a high smoke stack, ran the argument, and let the winds of heaven disperse the fumes.

Unfortunately, the problem did not end there, outpourings of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, along with other contaminants, are lofted skywards to merge and move’with, the huge air masses of the European weather systems. Within a few days they will combine with vapour in the atmosphere to form sulphuric acid. This then falls to earth as rain — a gentle blitzkrieg whose steady’ patter spells death to forests.

As it seeps into the soil the rain- releases aluminium and manganese to‘ poison?,the tree roots. The tree can no longer absorb enough water. The trunk core rots. The crown turns brown. First the needles fall, then whole branches. Finally, winter storms bring the weakened tree crashing to the ground.

Until recently, acid rain was more commonly associated with countries like Canada and Norway, whose lakes and rivers have become the rain drains of industrial Europe and the United States. In Ontario,, the worst affected Canadian province, some 140 lakes have been pronounced dead. Elsewhere, the sulphuric fallout is more acid than lemon juice and only marginally weaker than battery acid. In West Germany, the full extent of the impending catastrophe has only just emerged. A decade of warnings by foresters and ecologists has passed unheeded. Now the damage is too great and too widespread to be ignored. Every month brings fresh reports of crippled forests: 64,000 hectares dying in Baden-Wurtemburg; 55,000. hectares doomed in Bavaria. Today, no forest is too remote to be affected; and the problem is worsening. Last year some three and a half million tons of sulphur dioxide fell on Germany — double, the amount recorded in 1950, In Europe as a

whole, enough vitriol fell from the skies to crown every citizen with more than 1001 b of sulphur dioxide. Nor is the damage confined to trees alone. Everywhere in Germany, from Cologne Cathedral to Neuscnwanstein Castle, the ravages of acid rain are deeply etched on the rotting facades of historic buildings. It has been estimated that. some buildings are losing up, to 4 per cent in weight every year as a result of atmospheric pollution. Even .modern concrete - buildings are suffering — sb'badly, say some experts, that their life expectancy may be halved.The same corrosive forces that are destroying forests and devouring buildings are also eating into..'human throats and lungs. In -the . West German' town .of-Duis-burg, for instance, Which re< ceives direct fall-put,, from - factory chimneys, up to'Tour times as many people’suffer from chronic bronchitis as: those in country districts; . while the mortality rate from lung • cancer. in the industrial 'Ruhr and Saar dis-

tricts is well above the average for Germany as a whole. In Scandinavia, it is the power stations and factory chimneys of Britain which are largely to blame for the destruction of fish life in 70 per cent of Norwegian rivers. It is. pollution by proxy. Each yean some 250,000 1 tons of sulphur are dropped on Norway — 60,000 tons of it an unwanted gift from Britain. Small wonder European environmentalists are smarting over the refusal of Mr Michael Heseltine, the Secretary of State for the Environment, to attend a Ministerial conference on acid rain to be held in Stockholm in June.

One burning question is bound to dominate the proceedings at ;; Stockholm, Which is better’: , to reduce the-.emissions at source, on the well-established principle of '.'the polluter pays,” Or to continue to pay the environmental price for doing nothing? -. ' ’, t / % The outcome could be crucial, not only for areas like the Black Forest; - but ultimately for ourselves.

When it rains in West Germany, trees die; stonework crumbles, and people choke. BRIAN JACKMAN, of the “Sunday Times,” London, reports on modern menace — “acid rain” — that is causing world-wide devastation.