Climate Live – European waterways need more protection

Climate Live European waterways need more protection
  • European waterways need more protection

    Researchers collect water samples in watercourses to evaluate whether measures have yielded results. Photo: Fernando Chaguaceda

    A new international study shows that the water environments in European waterways have improved over the past decades. But the study also indicates that the positive development has stalled in recent years. Now the researchers believe that decision-makers should review and prioritize how water is managed.

    Researchers at the Swedish University of Agriculture (SLU) have participated in the European study that was published in the scientific journal Nature, where 1816 data series from European watercourses were included. The results show that the measures taken in recent decades have brought about improved water environments in watercourses in Europe. Analyzes collected data from watercourses in Europe, of which 90 from Sweden, gives an overall picture of how water is managed.

    – Since the data comes from long time series, we have gained a unique insight into the effects that the European water management and the European Water Directive have had. Unfortunately, we can also see that the positive effects have bShow more

  • Latest news

  • Christina Nordh

    yesterday14.24

    The new study: The fish can cope with heat waves

    Norwegian fishermen with their catch of cod fish screamed. Photo: NTB

    Neither the fishery nor the fishermen are threatened by meteorological heat waves, according to a new study published in the journal Nature.

    According to the researchers, the sea is not as sensitive to climate change as the environment on land. But they send the message that every increase in temperature is like playing roulette.

    The researchers have gone through nearly 30 years of studies of fish that live in deep water, such as various cod species in the North Atlantic and compared water temperatures, writes The Times.

    – What we discovered was good news in many ways. We found that fish, many of them that support the fishing industry, are more resilient than we previously thought during these heat waves … many of them are fish that end up on our plates, the bottom-dwelling fish near our coasts, says biologist Malin Pinsky from the University of California Santa Cruz to the newspaper.

    Previous studies have shown that heat waves lead to biological collapses in fish stocks and among phytoplankton that live in the uppermost layers of vSee more

  • EU: The summer was the hottest ever

    A man cools himself with a small fan in Lisbon during the heat wave in Portugal this summer. Photo: AP

    Last summer was the hottest on record in the northern hemisphere, reports the Norwegian Dagbladet.

    This is stated by the EU’s Earth observation program Copernicus, in a recent report on the summer weather.

    July this year was the hottest month ever. August the second warmest, and the warmest August month ever by a large margin, reports the research team.

    – Climate collapse has begun, says UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

    Read more here.

  • Christina Nordh

    Tuesday 14.24

    Quadruple emissions of harvested mangroves

    The mangrove trees protect against erosion. Here in the Sundarbans in India. Photo: Gautam Singh/AP

    Mangrove trees with their spreading roots thrive where other plants die, where seas meet rivers in tropical and subtropical regions.

    Marine ecologist Angelo Bernardino is now studying mangrove forests. He is part of the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Amazon Expedition, a series of scientific projects covering the Amazon River basin.

    According to Bernardino, the mangrove trees are necessary to mitigate the effects of climate change. They absorb salt and carbon dioxide and need little oxygen, writes National Geographic.

    Just over ten square kilometers of the mangrove trees in the Amazon are felled every year. When they are cut down, up to four times as much carbon dioxide is released as when felling the same amount of trees on land, the research team has discovered.

    Globally, mangrove forests sequester close to 23 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, according to UN figures.

    Mangrove forests also act as ‘erosion shields’, protecting coastal communities from storms and acting as nurseries for marine animals.

  • Christina Nordh

    Monday 15.50

    “Private” Antarctica is polluted by scientists

    Ecologists have discovered severe pollution after scientists were on site in Antarctica. Here the McMurdo station, which however has nothing to do with the below post. Photo: US National Science Foundation/AP

    The pollution is at the same level as in the port of Rio de Janeiro. But it is not about Brazil at all, but about Antarctica. And those who have littered are … researchers, according to a study published in PLOS One.

    Antarctica is often described as one of the least polluted areas in the world, but there is a dirty underbelly here. Parts of the seabed near the Australian Casey research station are heavily contaminated and this probably also applies to Antarctica’s older research stations, according to one of the study’s authors, marine ecologist Jonathan Stark at the Australian Antarctic Division in Hobart, Tasmania.

    – These pollutants accumulate over a long period of time and don’t just disappear, he says the journal Nature.

    Stark and his colleagues discovered stored hydrocarbons and heavy metals such as lead, copper and zinc. Many of the samples also contained PCBs, which are highly carcinogenic.

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  • Have looked everywhere about the forest fire around Norberg. Assume it is under control as there is no news.

    Hugo

    Hello! News about the forest fire in Norberg can be found here. And here.

  • When will politicians learn the difference between environment and climate?

    The climate is the relationship with the sun, the movements of the earth which are the major factors. Sweden’s role in this does not exist at all, in contrast to China, which emits enormous amounts of carbon dioxide and increases the burning of fossil substances every year by 33 times Sweden’s total emissions. Our politicians strain mosquitoes and swallow elephants. The attack to save the environment & climate is not about Sweden at all, but rather countries like China.

    Lena Karlsson

  • Haven’t read in the online newspaper about the new findings from SLU about bald cutting, why?

    Anders Eriksson

  • What responsibility do municipalities have for the climate? In my vicinity, I see a municipality in an expansive phase where they don’t even seem to have thought about e.g. emissions from traffic, noise, access to groundwater, the impact on nearby watercourses.

    Annie

    The truth is that many municipalities are lagging behind in this work and there is no regulated “agreement” between the state and municipalities to act against Agenda 2030 or the national climate goals in 2045.

  • I’m a little tired of trudging around among washed-up plastic and other trash here on the west coast. There is a beach cleaner map and many cleaners but it must be stopped at the source. What is being done on that front?

    Pray

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    fullscreen Heads with large rock piles have been constructed at Löderup beach in southern Skåne to combat the worst erosion, but the problems remain. Photo: Agneta Elmegård

    The Skåne coast is identified as a national risk area for flooding and erosion – Löderup’s beach is particularly vulnerable.

    – Climate change means that we have to abandon the view of what the coasts look like today, says Per Danielsson at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute.

    Kristianstad is Sweden’s lowest situated city.

    New and higher dikes are now being built.

    – We are doing this to protect the city against high tides and future sea level rises, says Karl Erik Svensson, project manager for the dike construction.

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