Despite some improvements in recent years, the U.K.’s environment is still in jeopardy, according to a report by the country’s Environment Agency. John Murlis, the agency’s chief scientist, said, “The current state of our environment makes it clear we must take greater responsibility for our consumerist, throwaway society.” The report says that urban air quality has dramatically improved since the smoggy 1950s, but that it still falls below health standards in rural and suburban areas. New development and roads, as well as intensive farming, are destroying wildlife habitat and generally making times tough for some critters. Water voles and farmland birds, for example, are on the decline.
