Brief reply for now (late). Please read this article by George Monbiot. nb Odd title, given what he says about the effect of the EU on the environment.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/20/brexiters-make-britain-countryside-like-kansas
I do not see the European Union as a lost Avalon. It brought us much that is good, such as directives that enable us to hold our governments to account for their environmental failures. But the good things it has done for the living world are counteracted – perhaps much more than counteracted – by a few astonishing idiocies. They arise from remote, unresponsive authority that is accessible to corporate lobby groups but not to mere mortals. In some respects the Brexit campaigners were right – though generally for the wrong reasons
One of these policies is the rule that only bare land is eligible for most farm subsidies. This perverse incentive for destruction has obliterated wildlife and natural beauty across hundreds of thousands of hectares. It threatens millions more. The failure of politicians and environmental groups tocampaign against this perversity – or even to mention it - is both mystifying and shameful
Then there is the European insistence that much of our transport fuel be replaced by biodiesel. I’ve been inveighing against the manufacture of biodiesel from crops since 2004, and have often been mocked for it. Now we know not only that it causes much greater greenhouse gas emissions than the fuel it replaces, but also that it’s a major cause of perhaps the greatest environmental disaster ofthe 21st century so far: the mass obliteration of the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia, driven in large part by palm oil production
Leaked figures released in June suggest biodiesel now accounts for 45% of the palm oil used in Europe. With one thoughtless policy – which was designed, under a lobbying onslaught, to avert the need for tougher rules on car manufacturers – the European commission has annulled all the environmental good it has ever done