Half of German Forests Damaged by Pollution
Half of West Germany’s 17.3 million acres of forest is now damaged by pollution, a government report said Wednesday.
It said damage to the forests, which cover a quarter of West German territory and yield 40 million cubic yards of timber a year, worsened last year. The beech and the oak showed increases in the rate of damage, although the trend among conifers had flattened out, the study said.
The report, presented to the cabinet by Research and Technology Minister Heinz Riesenhuber, placed most of the blame on air pollution. Environmentalists are demanding immediate measures to reduce pollution, including the imposition of a 60 m.p.h. speed limit on the country’s major highways, which currently have no fixed limit.
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