Compendium of UK Statistics - Environment

This page lists the issues that the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

currently has that are related to the environment, such as

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...

and

contamination Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that spoils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc. Types of contamination ...

. In 2015, it was reported that for the past decade, the state of the environment in the UK had significantly deteriorated both in urban and rural areas. According to the UK NEA, grazing air pollution and the forces of climate change have significantly affected the mountainous regions of the UK. Due to climate change; rising seawater temperatures and exploitation of marine resources led to a serious loss of quality in UK marine ecosystems. Air pollution, climate change, litter, waste, and soil contamination are all a part of the human activity that create these environmental issues in the UK.

Issues

Air pollution

Some examples of natural substances that contribute to air pollution in the UK are dust and pollen while examples of man-made substances contributing to the problem are gases that come from cars and truck exhaust. Additionally, air pollution is the cause of 10% of all deaths in the United Kingdom. Individuals with heart and lung disease are most affected by air pollution, but exposure has also been linked to stroke, diabetes, obesity and dementia. It has been reported in multiple headlines that air pollution kills 29,000 people a year in the United Kingdom.

Climate change

According to Lord Stern of Brentford, the flooding and storms in UK in 2014 were clear signs of climate change. In the waters of the United Kingdom, climate and ocean changes can affect and threatened species by influencing the efficacy of measures designed to protect them. Waterfront cities, which make up the majority of the United Kingdom, are reported to have a great challenge ahead of them in terms of resilience to climate change.

Litter

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) revealed that its annual beach litter report has shown a rising trend in garbage on United Kingdom shores over 20 years. The latest results from Great British Beach Clean event show that plastic pieces are the most frequently found items on United Kingdom beaches, not only that but the results show that plastic accounted for over 50% of all the litter that was recorded. In addition to this, litter in UK oceans have been widely affecting the marine life. The Scottish government has acknowledged littering as a serious problem in their oceans and have begun a process to advance strategies that will work to prevent harm to the marine life and the environment.

Waste

Currently the UK landfills 27,000,000 tonnes a year of municipal solid waste with 60% turning out to be biodegradable. Recycling/reuse together with composting have become the dominant methods of waste management in the UK, accounting for 42.2% of the total MSW. In 2012, 13.1 million tonnes of MSW was composted or recycled in the United Kingdom, which represented an increase of 27.3% since 2002.

Soil contamination

Soil contamination in the United Kingdom has been an ongoing issue in some regions and is not only recently developing, the Hg record of sediment samples taken from Diss Mere, United Kingdom show that the soil has been contaminated for the past thousand years, this increases the risk of potential pollutants to enter the atmosphere. Soil contamination, like littering, is caused by improper disposal of waste materials. Furthermore, there have been reports of multi-element contamination of soils and plants in parts of England that have been formerly known as mining areas, which leads to compromising soil matter.

Forests

The UK had a 2018

Forest Landscape Integrity Index The Forest Landscape Integrity Index (FLII) is an annual global index of forest condition measured by degree of anthropogenic modification. Created by a team of 48 scientists, the FLII, in its measurement of 300m pixels of forest across the globe ...

mean score of 1.65/10, ranking it 161st globally out of 172 countries.