Book Review

by Paul Ganderton

Stanners D. and Bourdeau P. (eds.). 1995. Europe's Environment: The Dobris Assessment. European Environment Agency. pp xxiv + 676. ISBN 92 826 5409 5.

Eurostat. 1995. Europe's Environment: Statistical Compendium. Eurostat, EU. pp 455. ISBN 92 827 4713 1.

These two tomes are the result of the call for a pan-European report of the state of the environment following an EU conference in 1991. As such they mirror calls for similar work by President Carter in the late 1970s (Global 2000). The scope and range is simply beyond what we have had in the past. 40 chapters in the main report are divided into 6 parts: context, assessment, pressures, human activities, problems and conclusions. 'Context" sets the scene giving an overview of both, the geographical basis of Europe and anthropogenic environmental changes. "Assessment" provides a base from which to analyse changes. All key aspects are mentioned - air, water, seas etc. 'Tressures" refers to those aspect of usage which cause greatest concern - population, pollution, waste etc. "Human activities" investigates the impact of our daily lives in industry, transport, agriculture etc. "Problems" tackles all the major issues today from climate change to chemical risk which leaves only the last part to act as a summary. Each chapter is packed with information, copious colour illustrations and graphs and references.

The statistical compendium acts as a more detailed source of information than can be found in the main report. However, data cover only three parts of the report - assessment, pressures and human activities. Like many of the OECD data reports there is a tendency to take a more selected range than one might wish. Alternatively, the compendium does highlight the difliculty of getting a common dataset (which is acknowledged as such in the introduction). There are many gaps in the tables: it is to be hoped that if this becomes a regular production then the gaps can diminish.

Given'the breadth and depth of this work it must be seen as a standard reference on the subject and as such should be in every library. The main report is excellent in terms of both knowledge and production. The limitations of the compendium suggest that it is the less usefid of the two for general use (the World Resources Yearbook might be better here). However, this is a small price to pay for what must be regarded as the best report on European Environment to be published for many years.