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Good food, fresh thinking -- a look at our food system.mp4

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Tap water_ one of our most valuable resources.mp4

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The waste dump of our planet - a look at Marine Litter.mp4

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What is the state of Europe's water bodies?

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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Climate Change Impacts by Regions in Europe

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Climate Change Impacts by Regions in Europe

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Climate change impacts in Europe's regions

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More information

Historic trends from 1990 to 2016 are represented in solid lines.The 2016-2017 trend is approximated (preliminary estimates). Projections until 2035 are represented in dashed lines.The upper line represents the scenario "with existing measures" (WEM), while the lower line represents the scenario "with additional measures" (WAM). EU targets and objectives for 2020, 2030 and 2050 are represented as bullets.

Methodology

Based on data reported by Member States under the Monitoring Mechanism Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 525/2013):

1990-2015 historic trends from national greenhouse gas inventories submitted by 1/06/2017

2017 approximated inventories submitted by 31/07/2018 + gap-filling

projections submitted by Member States in 2017

Unit: million tonnes CO ₂-equivalent

Additional information

The GHG emission trends, projections and targets include emissions from international aviation, and exclude emissions and removals from the land-use sector. The WEM scenario reflects existing policies and measures, while the WAM scenario takes into account the additional effects of planned measures reported by Member States. For the most part, these projections were reported in 2017 and therefore do not reflect the expected effects of recent policy adopted for the period after 2020.

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Greenhouse gas emission trends, projections and targets in the EU

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Historic trends from 1990 to 2016 are represented in solid lines.The 2016-2017 trend is approximated (preliminary estimates). Projections until 2035 are represented in dashed lines.The upper line represents the scenario "with existing measures" (WEM), while the lower line represents the scenario "with additional measures" (WAM).

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How clean is the air you're breathing right now? How does the air in your city compare with that of a neighbouring city or region? Air pollution is the single largest environmental health risk in Europe. The European Environment Agency's European Air Quality Index allows users to understand more about air quality where they live. Displaying up-to-the-minute data for the whole of Europe, users can gain new insights into the air quality of individual countries, regions and cities.

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How clean is the air you're breathing right now? How does the air in your city compare with that of a neighbouring city or region? Air pollution is the single largest environmental health risk in Europe. The European Environment Agency's European Air Quality Index allows users to understand more about air quality where they live.

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Warm days are defined as being above the 90th percentile of the daily maximum temperature. Boxes outlined in solid black contain at least three stations and so are likely to be more representative of the entire grid. A significant (at the 5 % level) long-term trend is shown by a black dot.

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Observed trends in warm days across Europe between 1960 and 2017

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Warm days are defined as being above the 90th percentile of the daily maximum temperature. Boxes outlined in solid black contain at least three stations and so are likely to be more representative of the entire grid. A significant (at the 5 % level) long-term trend is shown by a black dot.

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What is 'biodiversity', and why do we need it.mp4

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Impacts of extreme weather and climate related events in the EEA member countries.

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Trend in absolute sea level across Europe based on satellite measurements

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Horizontal spatial distribution of mean sea level trend in European Seas (January 1993- December 2015)

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The maps shows all ship traffic and extent of sea ice in January and September 2016.

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Forests are rich in biodiversity and valuable for recreation, water regulation and soil protection. As well as for providing timber and other non-wood forest products, forests are important for mitigating climate change and for the renewable energy sector. Forest ecosystems are exposed to a range of environmental, economic and social pressures that challenge their sustainability.

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The maps shows the regional seas surrounding Europe and the sustainability challenges they face

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Number of organisations publishing environment and sustainability reports according to the Global Reporting initiative (GRI) standard

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Time series of the number of organisations publishing sustainability reports according to the Global Reporting initiative (GRI) standard

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The total area of nationally designated protected areas in Europe [1] has increased over time and amounted to 1.5 million km 2 across 39 European countries in 2017, covering almost 26 % of terrestrial territory and inland waters. With more than 100 000 sites, though often small and fragmented, Europe has more protected areas than any other region in the world.

Key messages

The total area of nationally designated protected areas in Europe [1] has increased over time and amounted to 1.5 million across 39 European countries in 2017, covering almost 26 % of terrestrial territory and inland waters. With more than 100 000 sites, though often small and fragmented, Europe has more protected areas than any other region in the world.

What progress has been made with regard to the national designation of protected areas as a tool for biodiversity conservation?

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The total area of nationally designated protected areas in Europe [1] has increased over time and amounted to 1.5 million km 2 across 39 European countries in 2017, covering almost 26 % of terrestrial territory and inland waters. With more than 100 000 sites, though often small and fragmented, Europe has more protected areas than any other region in the world.

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Towards a greener and more sustainable Europe

EU citizens benefit from some of the highest environmental standards in the world. The EU and national governments have set clear objectives to guide European environment policy until 2020 and a vision beyond that, of where to be by 2050, with the support of dedicated research programmes, legislation and funding:

protect, conserve and enhance the EU's natural capital

turn the EU into a resource-efficient, green, and competitive low-carbon economy

safeguard EU citizens from environment-related pressures and risks to health and wellbeing

Work is ongoing on many fronts to protect the EU's endangered species and natural areas, ensure safe drinking and bathing water improve air quality and waste management, and reduce the effects of harmful chemicals.

Environmental protection and innovation help to create new business and employment opportunities, which stimulate further investment. Green growth is at the heart of EU policy to ensure that Europe's economic growth is environmentally sustainable. The EU also plays a key role in promoting sustainable development at a global level.

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EU citizens benefit from some of the highest environmental standards in the world.

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Fossil Fuels, Steam Power, and the Rise of Manufacturing

Abundant fossil fuels, and the innovative machines they powered, launched an era of accelerated change that continues to transform human society.

The Transformation of the World

Try to imagine what your life would be like without any machines working for you. Make a list of the machines in your household and on your person; you may arrive at a surprising number.

Now imagine earlier generations during their childhood years. How did they move from place to place? How did they communicate? What foods did they eat?

At one time, humans, fueled by the animals and plants they ate and the wood they burned, or aided by their domesticated animals, provided most of the energy in use. Windmills and waterwheels captured some extra energy, but there was little in reserve. All life operated within the fairly immediate flow of energy from the Sun to Earth.

Everything changed during the Industrial Revolution, which began around 1750. People found an extra source of energy with an incredible capacity for work. That source was fossil fuels — coal, oil, and natural gas, though coal led the way — formed underground from the remains of plants and animals from much earlier geologic times. When these fuels were burned, they released energy, originally from the Sun, that had been stored for hundreds of millions of years.

Coal was formed when huge trees from the Carboniferous period (345– 280 million years ago) fell and were covered with water, so that oxygen and bacteria could not decay them. Instead, the pressure of the weight of materials above them compressed them into dark, carbonic, ignitable rock.

Most of the Earth’s oil and gas formed over a hundred million years ago from tiny animal skeletons and plant matter that fell to the bottom of seas or were buried in sediment. This organic matter was compacted by the weight of water and soil. Coal, oil, and gas, despite their relative abundance, are not evenly distributed on Earth; some places have much more than others, due to geographic factors and the diverse ecosystems that existed long ago.

Early Steam Engines

The story of the Industrial Revolution begins on the small island of Great Britain. By the early 18th century, people there had used up most of their trees for building houses and ships and for cooking and heating. In their search for something else to burn, they turned to the hunks of black stone (coal) that they found near the surface of the earth. Soon they were digging deeper to mine it. Their coal mines filled with water that needed to be removed; horses pulling up bucketfuls proved slow going.

To the rescue came James Watt (1736–1819), a Scottish instrument-maker who in 1776 designed an engine in which burning coal produced steam, which drove a piston assisted by a partial vacuum. (There had been earlier steam engines in Britain, and also in China and in Turkey, where one was used to turn the spit that roasts a lamb over a fire.) Its first application was to more quickly and efficiently pump water out of coal mines, to better allow for extraction of the natural resource, but Watt’s engine worked well enough to be put to other uses; he became a wealthy man. After his patent ran out in 1800, others improved upon his engine. By 1900 engines burned 10 times more efficiently than they had a hundred years before.

At the outset of the 19th century, British colonies in North America were producing lots of cotton, using machines to spin the cotton thread on spindles and to weave it into cloth on looms. When they attached a steam engine to these machines, they could easily outproduce India, up until then the world’s leading producer of cotton cloth. One steam engine could power many spindles and looms. This meant that people had to leave their homes and work together in factories.

Early in the 19th century the British also invented steam locomotives and steamships, which revolutionized travel. In 1851 they held the first world’s fair, at which they exhibited telegraphs, sewing machines, revolvers, reaping machines, and steam hammers to demonstrate they that were the world’s leading manufacturer of machinery. By this time the characteristics of industrial society — smoke rising from factories, bigger cities and denser populations, railroads — could be seen in many places in Britain.

Why Britain?

Britain wasn’t the only place that had deposits of coal. So why didn’t the Industrial Revolution begin in China, or somewhere else that boasted this natural resource? Did it start in isolation in Britain, or were there global forces at work that shaped it? Was it geography or cultural institutions that mattered most? Historians have vigorously debated these questions, amassing as much evidence as possible for their answers.

Possible reasons why industrialization began in Britain include:

Shortage of wood and the abundance of convenient coal deposits

Commercial-minded aristocracy; limited monarchy

System of free enterprise; limited government involvement

Government support for commercial projects, for a strong navy to protect ships

Cheap cotton produced by slaves in North America

High literacy rates

Rule of law; protection of assets

Valuable immigrants (Dutch, Jews, Huguenots [French Protestants])

Possible reasons why industrialization did not begin in China include:

Location of China’s coal, which was in the north, while economic activity was centered in the south

Rapid growth of population in China, giving less incentive for machines and more for labor-intensive methods

Confucian ideals that valued stability and frowned upon experimentation and change

Lack of Chinese government support for maritime explorations, thinking its empire seemed large enough to provide everything needed

China’s focus on defending self from nomadic attacks from the north and west

Global forces influencing the development of industrialization in Britain include:

Britain’s location on the Atlantic Ocean

British colonies in North America, which provided land, labor, and markets

Silver from the Americas, used in trade with China

Social and ideological conditions in Britain, and new thoughts about the economy, that encouraged an entrepreneurial spirit

By the way, if you’re wondering what oil and natural gas were doing while coal was powering the Industrial Revolution, they had been discovered long before and were in use, but mostly as fuels for lamps and other light sources. It wasn’t until the mid-20th century that oil caught up — and surpassed — coal in use.

The Spread of the Industrial Revolution

Britain tried to keep secret how its machines were made, but people went there to learn about them and took the techniques back home. Sometimes they smuggled the machines out in rowboats to neighboring countries. The first countries after Britain to develop factories and railroads were Belgium, Switzerland, France, and the states that became Germany. Building a national railroad system proved an essential part of industrialization. Belgium began its railroads in 1834, France in 1842, Switzerland in 1847, and Germany in the 1850s.

Industrialization began in the United States when Samuel Slater emigrated from Britain to Rhode Island in 1789 and set up the first textile factory on U.S soil. He did this from memory, having left Britain without notes or plans that could have been confiscated by British authorities. Francis Cabot Lowell, of Massachusetts, visited Britain from 1810 to 1812 and returned to set up the first power loom and the first factory combining mechanical spinning and weaving in the States. Railroad construction in America boomed from the 1830s to 1870s. The American Civil War (1861–65) was the first truly industrial war — the increasingly urbanized and factory-based North fighting against the agriculture-focused South — and industrialization grew explosively afterward. By 1900 the United States had overtaken Britain in manufacturing, producing 24 percent of the world’s output.

After 1870 both Russia and Japan were forced by losing wars to abolish their feudal systems and to compete in the industrializing world. In Japan, the monarchy proved flexible enough to survive through early industrialization. In Russia, a profoundly rural country, the czar and the nobility undertook industrialization while trying to retain their dominance. Factory workers often worked 13-hour days without any legal rights. Discontent erupted repeatedly, and eventually a revolution brought the Communist party to power in 1917.

Industrialized nations used their strong armies and navies to colonize many parts of the world that were not industrialized, gaining access to the raw materials needed for their factories, a practice known as imperialism. In 1800 Europeans occupied or controlled about 34 percent of the land surface of the world; by 1914 this had risen to 84 percent.

Britain led the 19th-century takeovers and ended the century with the largest noncontiguous empire the world has ever known. (“The sun never sets on the British Empire,” as the British liked to say.) Britain exerted great influence in China and the Ottoman Empire without taking over direct rule, while in India, Southeast Asia, and 60 percent of Africa, it assumed all governmental functions.

In the last decade of the 19th century most European nations grabbed for a piece of Africa, and by 1900 the only independent country left on the continent was Ethiopia. After World War II (1939–1945) Europe’s colonies demanded their independence, which didn’t always happen immediately or without conflict but eventually took root. Now, in the early 21st century, Brazil, China, and India are becoming economic powerhouses, while many European countries are enduring troubled economic times.

Consequences of the Industrial Revolution

The statistics that reflect the effects of industrialization are staggering. In 1700, before the widespread use of fossil fuels, the world had a population of 670 million people. By 2011 the world’s population had reached 6.7 billion, a 10-fold increase in a mere 300 years. In the 20th century alone, the world’s economy grew 14-fold, the per capita income grew almost fourfold, and the use of energy expanded at least 13-fold. This kind of growth has never before occurred in human history.

Many people around the world today enjoy the benefits of industrialization. With so much more energy flowing through human systems than ever before, many of us must do much less hard physical labor than earlier generations did. People today are able to feed more babies and bring them to adulthood. Many people vote and participate in modern states, which provide education, social security, and health benefits. Large numbers of people enjoy levels of wealth, health, education, travel, and life expectancy unimagined before industrialization.

The benefits of industrialization, however, have come at great cost. For one thing, the rate of change (acceleration) is now so rapid that individuals and social systems struggle to keep up. And strong arguments can be made about depersonalization in the age of mass production.

The increased complexity of the industrial system has also brought increased fragility. Industrialization depends on the interaction of many diverse components, any one of which could fail. We know that many of the essential components of the industrial system, and the natural resources it depends on, are being compromised — the soil, the oceans, the atmosphere, the underground water levels, plants, and animals are all at risk. Will growth continue unchecked, or are we approaching the end of an unsustainable industrial era? Whatever the future holds, we’ll be debating — and dealing with — the consequences of modernization for years to come.

For Further Discussion

The innovations of the Industrial Revolution transformed textile production. Can you think of innovations today in some other industry that are transforming that industry and changing the way humans live? Share your answer in the Questions Area below. Then, respond to someone else’s answer, commenting on the characteristics of that transformation that either make it similar to or different from what happened in the Industrial Revolution.

Sources

Allen, Robert C. The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Marks, Robert B. The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002.

Strayer, Robert W. Ways of the World: A Brief Global History. Vol. II: Since 1500, Ch. 18: “Revolutions of Industrialization, 1750–1914.” Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009.

Uglow, Jenny. The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.

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The Industrial Revolution (article) | Khan Academy

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WATCH: Coal, Steam, and the Industrial Revolution (video) | Khan Academy

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Learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.

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What we throw into the trash bin might end up into the sea.Our understanding is growing on this global issue, which has impacts on marine wildlife but also human health and the economy. Watch this video to find out more.

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The waste dump of our planet - a look at Marine Litter

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What we throw into the trash bin might end up into the sea.Our understanding is growing on this global issue, which has impacts on marine wildlife but also human health and the economy. Watch this video to find out more.

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Do you know what the effects of air pollution on human health are? What causes air pollution? What can you, as a citizen, do to avoid polluting the air? Watch our expert explaining it.

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Tap water: one of our most valuable resources

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When we turn on the tap, we rarely think about where the water comes from or where it goes afterwards. Bo Jacobsen, EEA water expert, explains the true value of tap water.

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What is 'biodiversity', and why do we need it?

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Information on the environment for those involved in developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating environmental policy, and also the general public

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There is a strong link between our health and food. Food is a basic human need. In addition to being available, it needs to be of high quality, accessible, not contaminated, affordable and environmentally sustainable.

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Good food, fresh thinking - a look at our food system

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There is a strong link between our health and food. Food is a basic human need. In addition to being available, it needs to be of high quality, accessible, not contaminated, affordable and environmentally sustainable.

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Our quality of life depends, among other things, on a reliable supply of energy at an affordable price. We still burn fossil fuels to obtain most of the energy we use and combustion of fossil fuels affects us all in one way or another. It releases air pollutants into the atmosphere and harms our health. It also releases greenhouse gases and contributes to climate change. We are at a critical decision point in time: the negative impacts of our current energy choices on the one hand, and the opportunities that clean energy sources offer on the other. Signals 2017 looks into Europe's transition towards clean, smart and renewable energy.

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Shaping the future of energy in Europe - Clean, smart and renewable

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Our quality of life depends, among other things, on a reliable supply of energy at an affordable price. We still burn fossil fuels to obtain most of the energy we use and combustion of fossil fuels affects us all in one way or another. It releases air pollutants into the atmosphere and harms our health.

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How can Europe become truly 'sustainable'? Here EEA Executive Director Hans Bruyninckx calls for a Europe-wide transition to a truly sustainable system, beyond the incremental gains in efficiency which have worked in the past. Moreover, Europe needs to make this kind of fundamental transition in its relationship to the environment if it is to meet its own objectives by mid century, he argues.

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How can Europe become truly 'sustainable'? Here EEA Executive Director Hans Bruyninckx calls for a Europe-wide transition to a truly sustainable system, beyond the incremental gains in efficiency which have worked in the past. Moreover, Europe needs to make this kind of fundamental transition in its relationship to the environment if it is to meet its own objectives by mid century, he argues.