Acid Rain in Europe: Counting the cost

The environmental impacts of acid rain: on human health, on buildings and materials, on forests, freshwaters, crops and biodiversity and on global warming have been well-documented. Less is known about the extent and economic costs of these impacts. This book describes the first major implementation of an integrated scientific and economic assessment of the consequences of acid rain. It provides an extensive data review and examines how this unique approach to assessment modelling can be can be used to calculate an acidification cost per unit of pollutant in monetary terms. Part One focuses on the methodological issues of scientific measurement of acidification, dose-response relationships and economic approaches to acidification control. Part Two looks at the environmental impacts and economic consequences of acidification. Affected environmental media and human health are investigated in separate chapters, each including both scientific and economic analyses. Part Three provides a summary of the findings and makes recommendations for further application of these types of results to policy actions.

Helen ApSimon is leader of the Air Pollution Group, Imperial College Centre for Environmental Technology, London. David Pearce is associate director of the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE), University College London, a member of the United Nations High Level Advisory Board on Sustainable Development and editor of the seminal Blueprint series (Earthscan). Ece Ozdemiroglu is a director of Economics For The Environmental Consultancy Ltd (EFTEC), London. Originally published in 1997