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[greenyes] Climate Change Around British Isles
- Subject: [greenyes] Climate Change Around British Isles
- From: "Peter Anderson" <anderson@no.address>
- Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 11:45:52 -0600
The Independent
Britannia ruins the waves: how pollution and over-fishing are destroying sea
life
Fish are changing sex. Species are disappearing as breeding patterns
collapse. The food chain is in chaos as temperatures rise, says the first
ever major audit of the state of our seas. Severin Carrell reveals what
ministers will say on Tuesday about the damage being done to British waters
by industry and global warming
27 February 2005
Britain's seas are seriously ailing and the species that depend on them
suffering as never before. The most comprehensive "health check" ever made
of the waters around our shores has revealed that, while Britannia once
ruled the waves, now it is helping destroy what lives beneath them.
Fish stocks are on the brink of collapse. Species are changing sex because
of pollution. Dolphins and porpoises are being killed at unprecedented
rates. Water temperatures are rising, and the seabed is being destroyed.
In a disturbing insight into the state of our seas, the government-led
investigation has found clear proof that the seas around the British Isles
are already suffering the effects of global warming - threatening the
survival of fish such as cod and raising the risk of a sudden, catastrophic
change in weather patterns.
The study, compiled by the Department for Food, Environment and the Regions
(Defra) after 18 months of reviewing all current marine research, found that
water temperatures and sea levels are now rising around Britain, while salt
levels are dropping because of melting Arctic ice caps. Meanwhile native
plankton species - vital to the survival of many fish stocks - are slowly
disappearing.
This deeply worrying picture has emerged from 900-page report, which is
being published by ministers on Tuesday, into the true state of the seas
around the British Isles - historically one of the world's richest marine
environments. The audit, which has been peer reviewed, reveals how:
sea temperatures have risen by 0.6C a decade, and by up to 1.5C in winter;
sea levels are rising by up to 2mm a year because of melting ice caps and
increased rainfall; sea water is becoming more acidic because of increasing
carbon dioxide levels in the air; fish, such as cod, haddock, herring, blue
whiting and sole, are being fished outside safe limits, with cod "in danger
of collapse"; common skate and angel shark have disappeared from the Irish
Sea and the Channel;
cold-water plankton - the most basic food stuff for young cod and other
native species - is moving northwards and being replaced by warm-water
plankton;
deep-sea trawlers are harming fish such as orange roughie and anglerfish,
and devastating ancient and fragile coral beds off western Scotland;
winter storms are growing more intense and wave heights increasing by 30cm a
decade, risking flooding and cliff erosion in regions such as East Anglia,
north Wales and southern England; estuaries such as the Mersey, Clyde and
Tees are showing "undesirably high" toxic contamination from heavy metals
and chemicals, which has led to flounder and dab showing signs of cancer and
suffering sex changes; a "significant" number of shellfish farms are unsafe
and beaches are being closed due to sewage contamination; massive new
offshore windfarms off Wales, north-west England and the South-east pose a
"major challenge" to marine life.
The document forms a crucial part of a new Government campaign to combat
climate change and introduce tough new controls on over-fishing, campaigns
that will be stepped up this week.
Elliott Morley, the environment minister who oversaw the report, told The
Independent on Sunday: "For the dwindling band of doubters, I would really
recommend that they look at this report. It demonstrates there are serious
problems with climatic change, and we've really got to get a grip on it. The
longer we delay taking effective action, the more difficult it will be to
turn things around. Even a five-year delay could be significant.""...
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_________________________
Peter Anderson, President
RECYCLEWORLDS CONSULTING
4513 Vernon Blvd. Suite 15
Madison, WI 53705-4964
Ph: (608) 231-1100
Fax: (608) 233-0011
Cell: (608) 698-1314
eMail: anderson@no.address
web: www.recycleworlds.net
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