Climate Disruption already affecting UK marine life: report
EconomicDemocracy Coop
The biodiversity and productivity of seas around the UK could already
be suffering the consequences of climate change, a report has
concluded.
It says damaging storms have become more frequent, and rising sea
surface temperatures have led to an apparent northward shift of
warm-water plankton.
The "Annual Report Card" pulls together leading research on climate
change's impact on the UK's marine environment.
The study was compiled by the Marine Climate Change Impacts
Partnership.
The partnership (MCCIP) - including government departments, academics
and NGOs - hoped the publication would give more people better access
to the research, and help them understand the issues surrounding the
topic.
Warming waters
The report looked at a range of climate-related issues affecting the
marine environment; from temperature changes and sea level rise to the
distribution of fish species.
UK REGIONAL SEA AREAS
1. Northern North Sea
2. Southern North Sea
3. Eastern English Channel
4. Western English Channel and approaches
5. Irish Sea
6. West Scotland
7. Scottish continental shelf
8. Atlantic north-west approaches
(Source: Defra)
Each section provided an assessment of what was already happening,
before outlining what could happen in the future.
For example, it said: "There has been a greater incidence of severe
winds and increasing wave heights in western and northern UK
territorial waters over the past 50 years."
Looking at future projections, it added: "Different modelling
approaches project different scales of change but indicate that wind
strength and wave heights will increase."
Each of the contributing scientists rated their level of certainty
about the statements within the report, as low, medium or high, based
on the amount and consistency of available data. [note: low confidence
is very different from 'low probability'' that is is true -ED]
It gave a low confidence rating to the impact of climate change on the
distribution of fish species because it said that observations of rare
fish migrants to UK water cannot yet be directly attributed to global
warming.
It also added that although cold-water species had moved further north
in some regions, such as the North Sea, the shifts had not happened
elsewhere.
But forecasts for increases in sea surface temperatures (SST) received
a high confidence rating.
It projected: "Models anticipate that SST will continue to rise in all
waters around the UK coast, with stronger warming in the south-east
than in the north-west."
Warmer-water plankton had shifted 1,000km northwards in the north-east
Atlantic over the past 40 years, the report card said, indicating that
a change was taking place in the marine environment.
The small free-floating organisms form the basis of the food web in the
sea, so the availability of plankton has a major influence on the
distribution of fish stocks and animals further up the food chain, such
as sea birds.
But the study also said that whilst the variety and distribution of
marine species were being altered by climate change, it was not the
only factor; commercial [over] fishing remained the major cause of
changes in fish populations.
Projection of sea levels around the UK's shores rising up to 80cm by
2080 received a "medium" confidence rating, yet forecasts of increased
coastal flooding merited a "low" confidence rating, illustrating the
complexities of modelling the impacts of climate change on the seas
around the UK.
State of the seas
Commenting on the launch of the annual report card, UK Climate Change
Minister Ian Pearson said: "Our seas play a vital role in shaping and
regulating our climate and have a tremendous bearing on our future
well-being."
"There is a lot we still do not understand about the impact climate
change will have on our oceans, but the report card gives us
at-a-glance the latest scientific knowledge which will improve our
understanding and our capacity to act," he added.
The MCCIP was launched in March 2005 by the government and devolved
administrations, as part of a commitment to assess the state of the
waters around the UK.
The partnership said that it would publish a report card each year to
keep people informed about developments in research on the UK's marine
environment.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/6191828.stm
Published: 2006/11/29 09:52:13 GMT
paulus
"EconomicDemocracy Coop" <econde...@gmail.com> wrote in message
> The study was compiled by the Marine Climate Change Impacts
> Partnership.
>
> The partnership (MCCIP) - including government departments, academics
"Partnership" in UK terms normally indicates that the body in question is
nothing more than a Quango. A good example of a politicaly motivated,
unelected, biased, Holyer than thou, axe to grind quango is the
proliferation of "Road Safety Partnerships". That tells you all you need to
know about Expert Opinion in the UK.
I saw the piece on TV where the BBC sent a reporter to look at this MCCIP
crew. It was little more than a recruitment call to bleeding heart "Yoof"
looking for a direction to take in their A Levels.
Reading through the OP one finds that the only thing that they can say for
certain is that UK SST's have been warmer over the last decade or so than in
previous years. They run with that thought and just churn out the same tired
"might-could-should" from the AGW script.
The report said: "There has been a greater incidence of severe
winds and increasing wave heights in western and northern UK
territorial waters over the past 50 years." - I'll stick my neck out here
and guess that that statement is utter pap. You'll obviously see more of
something if your looking for it! But that's the whole basis of AGW science.
"we are now seeing things we never looked for before"
Paulus
stewart...@hotmail.co.uk
> Climate 'altering UK marine life'
> The biodiversity and productivity of seas around the UK could already
> be suffering the consequences of climate change, a report has
> concluded.
you should be more worried about over-fishing and pollution
EconomicDemocracy Coop
Weinstein wrote:
> EconomicDemocracy Coop wrote:
>
> > Climate 'altering UK marine life'
> > The biodiversity and productivity of seas around the UK could already
> > be suffering the consequences of climate change, a report has
> > concluded.
>
> consequences of climate change. NOTE that it doesn't say marine life _IS_
> suffering the consequences. It says _COULD_
>
> I point this out because most if not ALL of these doom and gloom
> reports from reasonably credible sources (Like the BBC) are peppered
> with 'might', 'may', 'could', 'suggests', 'perhaps', 'possibly' etc..
You are flat-out wrong, I've posted lots of articles, including by the
BBC,
very recently, citing things that ARE RIGHT NOW happening (recently
one Re: Siberia). You seem to be 100% immune to facts and reality: you
just state your own self-created pseudo-reality that ASSUMES (quite
falsely) whatever you want to believe (in this case, that "most if not
all"
of the articles on studies concerning the climate/environment) are
about "could"
this is flat out false.
If you were on stronger factual grounds, you also would not
resort to your own use of over-emotionalized words like "doom and
gloom"
in response to a factual report (no hysterical "oh my god"
rhetoric,just
a summary of facts and potential or alreaady-existing consequences
is what you find in most of these reports) yet YOU use emotionally
charged
words and then acuse the reports of exactly what you do. Worse than
that you go even further, you call them "End of the world reports" So
talking
about ecological disruption of marine life is something we need to
shut
up about to make you happy other wise you (bizarrely) label such
reports about
ecological disrutpion of climate, fisheries, UK marine life, or
whatever as
"end of the world"
> Many global warming hysterists repeat these 'studies' and omit these
> important words. They present these studies as if they were based on
> cold hard scientific fact and the predictions are inevitable. This
> just isn't true.
>
> Look at this paragraph:
>
> > It gave a low confidence rating to the impact of climate change on the
> > distribution of fish species because it said that observations of rare
> > fish migrants to UK water cannot yet be directly attributed to global
> > warming.
>
> See where it says "CANNOT YET BE DIRECTLY ATTRIBUTED TO GLOBAL WARMING"...
>
> I take my hat off to the BBC. They leave this stuff in. Radical
> left wing sites make sure these little details don't get shown when
> they publish these 'reports'. All hints of doubt must be removed to
> create maximum hysteria.
>
> Your message title would have been more accurate if it were worded:
>
> Climate Disruption _COULD_ already affecting UK marine life.
>
> Saying that it _IS_ already affecting UK marine life is needlessly
> spreading hysteria. People need to read these doom and gloom reports
> more critically and stop repeating every one as if it were an
> undisputed scientific fact that will surely come true.
>
> Please people.. Read these 'end of the world reports' critically.
> You'll see that most of them are just educated guesses at best.
> Just because you WANT them to be true doesn't make them true facts.