International disputes: none
Climate: temperate and marine; cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers; occasional warm, tropical foehn wind; high relative humidity
Terrain: lowlands in north, uplands in center, Bavarian Alps in south
Natural resources: iron ore, coal, potash, timber, lignite, uranium, copper, natural gas, salt, nickel
Land use: arable land: 34% permanent crops: 1% meadows and pastures: 16% forest and woodland: 30% other: 19%
Irrigated land: 4,800 sq km (1989 est.)
Environment:
current issues: emissions from coal-burning utilities and industries
and lead emissions from vehicle exhausts (the result of continued use
of leaded fuels) contribute to air pollution; acid rain, resulting
from sulfur dioxide emissions, is damaging forests; heavy pollution in
the Baltic Sea from raw sewage and industrial effluents from rivers in
eastern Germany
natural hazards: NA
international agreements: party to - Air Pollution, Air
Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Air
Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental
Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered
Species, Environmental Modification, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical
Timber 83, Wetlands, Whaling; signed, but not ratified - Air
Pollution-Sulphur 94, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes
Note: strategic location on North European Plain and along the
entrance to the Baltic Sea
@Germany:People
Population: 81,337,541 (July 1995 est.)