European Environmental Yearbook Enlightening
by Don Rittner

It's easy to become immersed in environmental issues affecting us locally,
regionally, or even nationally -- but the far-reaching effects of
environmental problems encourages us to develop a more global perspective.
 Yet, there hasn't been an easy way to assess the collective body of
environmental information outside the United States -- until now.

The European Environmental Yearbook, 1990, 2nd edition, is an encyclopedic
source of environmental legislation, issues, and programs affecting the
twelve member countries that make up the European Economic Community (ECC),
and other industrialized nations.  Compiled by the Institute for
Environmental Studies in Milan and published by DocTer International in the
U.K., this monumental book brings together, in one source, an important
collection of information that every environmental researcher must have on
their library shelf.  

Part One describes the administrative structures, existing laws, issues, and
policies for each member country, covering 22 topics from agriculture to
water supplies. Every chapter is written by experts from each country. Tables
and charts accompany the easy-to-read text. This section explores the
diversity of environmental problems and what member countries are doing to
solve them -- both successes and failures.  To illustrate, in the
environmental education chapter, one will learn that environmental education
is dismissed in Belgium as being a hobby of left wing extremists! The last
chapter of the section contains an extensive bibliography for each country. 

Special surveys on Australia, Japan, USA, and USSR are included, and are
aimed at showing the influence these countries have on the ECC, and vice
versa.

For those interested in the actual legal and legislative structures, Part
Three includes a complete listing of all environmental legislation,
agreements,  and international conventions relating to the environment,
adopted by the ECC countries (Did you know Luxembourg has had environmental
legislation since 1669?).  

The final section of the book contains the documentation of several protocols
and programs adopted on the environment (EEC: The fourth Community Program on
the Environment; EEC: Single European 
Act (Abstract); The Helsinki Protocol (Annex 1); The Montreal Protocol; and
the Sofia Protocol).  A section on environmental institutes and associations
and a list of the contributors of the articles round out the book.  

The European Environmental Yearbook is an important reference work for anyone
who needs a through overview of current and future issues affecting the
European environment.

SOURCE: BNA Books,300 Raritan Center Parkway, PO Box 7816, Edison, NJ
08818(201) 225-1900 2nd Ed. 1990  897 pages.  $150

 RATING: 4.6 (5 being best score)

    Readability: 4.5
    Environmental significance: 5
    Authoritative:  4.5
    Definitive: 4.5

Copyright 1991, Don Rittner  
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Don Rittner is the author of EcoLinking: Everyone's Guide to Online
Information (Peachpit Press), a columnist for Environment News Service, and
Host of America Online's Environmental Forum.