The sea has had enough – altaposten.no

The UN Large Sea Conference in Nice is now focusing on the sea.

It’s not a day prematurely. For us in Norway, the fish in the sea is still the basis for settlement and business, especially in the north, and we have lived well by the sea. Fish is Norway’s second largest export industry and the sea is food for millions of people worldwide. Many people take it for granted that it will still be that way, but it will not. We have reached a point where we must take the condition in the sea seriously and use the knowledge we already have about what needs to be done.

So what’s the problem?

When the temperature of the earth is now increasing, the sea also becomes warmer and is exposed to great stresses. The scream, for example, does not like it and pulls north. An increasingly warmer sea also causes the ice in the Arctic to melt at a dangerous pace. The climate comes in a waist with more rainfall, more and stronger storms as a result. It is increasingly affecting coastal populations – including us.

So we have initiated a vicious circle of pollution and temperature increases that damage both ourselves and our descendants. When you hit the snip or snuff in the sea, it takes 20 years before it breaks down, the beer box 200 years and the plastic bottle 450 years. When the stork quarrel has so much heavy metals in it that it is described as hazardous waste and our kids, literally, get the microplastics in with breast milk, then we can no longer close our eyes.

The climate and environmental challenges we face are unpleasant and scary and we do not want to take it inward, but as with the shit in the sea, they do not disappear for that reason. We are well in the process of seriously harming the basis of life for those who come after us!

May the UN Sea Conference, this time, be more than talk!

Wenche cumming

Grandparents’ climate action

Vesterålen

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