Forest Dieback

In 1981 the news magazine Der Spiegel ran a series on acid rain under the title Das stille Sterben – Säureregen zerstört den deutschen Wald, the silent death: acid rain is destroying the German forest. A soil scientist from Göttingen was quoted as saying the first great forests would die within five years. A new word entered German, and French as well: das Waldsterben, the dying of the forest. Policy followed. The ordinance on large combustion plants came into force on 1 July 1983. Unleaded petrol and the catalytic converter followed. In 2004 a forestry economist noted that the forecasts of that time had proved untenable. Environmental groups answer that the forest survived because of what was done. In 2013 the Bund Naturschutz in Bavaria called it fatal to deny these successes.

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