EEA Publishes Signals Report

EEA executive director Professor Jacqueline McGlade said: "We rely on the richness of life on this planet for our food, shelter and such basic needs as clean air. We are a part of this diversity and cannot live without it. In Signals, ordinary people observe how changes to their environment affect not only animal and plant life, but also their livelihood and lifestyle."

The stories follow, for example, the course of water from the Alpine summits to its use in Vienna, Austria and examine how climate change is affecting an ancient water cycle in the mountains with repercussions for tens of millions of Europeans.

The publication highlights the impacts of climate change - one story relates how the melting of permafrost and the freeze-thaw cycle are causing rock in the Alps to crumble away, making several routes inaccessible. Climate change threatens to alter the Alpine water cycle drastically, it adds, with changes in precipitation, snow-cover patterns and glacier storage altering the way water is transported, and affecting water quality.

The annual report provides snapshots of issues of interest to the environmental policy debate and is aimed at a broad target audience. It acknowledges progress in terms of protecting biodiversity, but also that it continues to be lost ‘at all scales'.