Two measures to control oil pollution

Tuvalu Islands are distributed in the equatorial sea area of 6,543,800 square kilometers between Hawaii and Australia. These islands are small and low-lying, and the highest place is no more than 4.5 meters above sea level. So it's not hard to imagine what happens when the waves wash the island. It's 165438+ October, a season with frequent hurricanes.

The government of Tuvalu issued a statement more than ten years ago, saying that the fourth smallest country in the world was facing extinction due to climate change. Rising sea levels and devastating storms have begun to engulf the island. At the same time, people's fears are deepening, and it is rumored that Tuvalu Islands will no longer be suitable for human habitation, and may even disappear completely within a few decades. In 2003, the Prime Minister of Tuvalu reported to the United Nations that the threat of global warming was equivalent to "a kind of terrorism that lurks, breeds and spreads". Some scientists have also made cruel predictions. From 65438 to 0996, the scientific research report jointly written by the South Pacific Regional Environment Plan and the Japanese government concluded: "Tuvalu is extremely vulnerable to the negative impact of climate change, especially sea level rise, because of its unique geographical location and natural conditions."

An ecological disaster threatening the residents of the island

The problem of Tuvalu has attracted the attention of the world. The main cause of the disaster is the large amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by fossil fuels, which leads to global warming. In this way, people's habit of turning on all the lights at home, the habit of driving a large-displacement SUV on the rampage, and the warm lifestyle of enjoying air conditioning and electric heating at home in winter all affect Tuvalu's fate to some extent.

In 2002, Tuvalu threatened to sue the United States and Australia for excessive carbon dioxide emissions. At the same time, some Tuvaluans began to prepare to abandon their homes. Last year, the British "Guardian" published a commentary article "Sea level rise causes islanders to leave their homes". Will Tuvalu become the second Atlantis ()? Maybe. But not all scientists agree with this view. Some people dismiss the island leaders as opportunists, thinking that what they do is to seek overseas assistance and special treatment for "quasi-ecological refugees" and use the crisis to obtain immigration places in New Zealand and Australia. Others think that people who sympathize with Tuvalu are "ecological dictators", and their purpose is to impose their appalling ecological environment view on the world.

Scholars have collected a lot of important evidence through on-the-spot investigation in Tuvalu, rearranging scientific data, and discussing with meteorologists and other scholars, which proves that Tuvalu and its nearly 10,000 residents are indeed in a difficult situation, and even facing extinction. However, sea level rise is not the only reason.

This afternoon, the sky was covered with iron-gray clouds, the sea breeze screamed mournfully, and the heavy rain mixed with the smell of the sea became a piece. Despite the flooding on the island, the good news from Celia, the country's chief meteorological adviser, is that seawater will not penetrate into neighboring wells and taro fields, nor will it flood the airstrip.

Celia is a tall, thin, middle-aged lady and an unusual figure in Tuvalu. She is a Muslim in this traditional Christian society. She studied in Australia and became a scientist. Recently, she played the role of a terror prophet in front of her leisurely hometown. "I think we are in danger," she said in an office full of computers. "Since the 1980s, hurricanes and tropical storms have frequently landed. 1999, we suffered a severe drought. The rising Hong Chao also invaded the island. Abnormal waves kept beating against the rocks, and another form of flood appeared on the island. At the end of last century, water seeped from the surface to form a pool, and then gradually connected with the sea. Surface water has nothing to do with rainfall. "

In Celia's view, this series of phenomena indicates that Tuvalu will be gradually submerged. Many islanders hold the same view. In the past ten years, the beaches on Whitehead Island have receded by 3 meters. A small island near Nukufeitao Atoll has been "submerged"; The other one has almost disappeared, and now the sea is devouring the remaining13 land of the island. In the past 1 1 and 65438+February, huge waves and storms often appeared, but now they may come at any time. At the northernmost tip of Funafuti, there is a battery, which was erected on the coastal highlands by the US military during World War II, and now it is only 6 meters away from the sea. At the southern end of the island, there is a conference hall near the sea. According to the old people, this used to be the center of the island.

Carbon dioxide and global warming

Under the threat of disaster, Tuvalu's leaders began to appeal to the world: "Some countries should act immediately to reduce greenhouse gas emissions." "Some countries" refers to the United States and Australia. They are the countries with the highest total and per capita greenhouse gas emissions, and the only developed country that refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocol on gradually reducing greenhouse gas emissions. "The United States accounts for only a small part of the world's population, but consumes 25% of the world's resources," Tuvalu's foreign minister once publicly accused. "They Americans have a superior life and everything is convenient. On average, each family has three or four cars. They should thank the people who live here for everything. "

As early as the19th century, scientists began to speculate on the relationship between carbon dioxide and atmospheric temperature. But it was not until 1958 that Charles of Scripps Institution of Oceanography? David didn't get the accurate data of atmospheric carbon dioxide level until he set up a high-precision gas analysis instrument in the active volcano area of Hawaii. The view that the total amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing year by year is also widely recognized.

In 1980s, scientists revealed the close relationship between carbon dioxide level and temperature by analyzing deep ice core samples of primitive glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland. In addition, research also shows that the current level of carbon dioxide is higher than at any time in the past 440,000 years. Before the industrial revolution, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere remained relatively stable. In the following years, its concentration climbed nearly 1/3, and now it is increasing at an alarming rate of 0.4% per year. In the last ice age, the global forest coverage decreased by about half, and this important carbon dioxide absorber also weakened.

In the last century, the average temperature of the earth's surface rose by 0.6℃, reaching the highest value in nearly a thousand years. In the past 25 years, the increase has been even more alarming. The hottest decade after 1860, all appeared after 1990. At the same time, the researchers also recorded the great changes brought about by the increasing greenhouse effect. For example, the surface temperature at night cannot be reduced as before; In winter, the snow area in the northern hemisphere shrinks; Arctic ice floes melt a lot in spring and summer; And the degradation of glaciers. The data shows that glaciers in Kenya have shrunk by 90% and glaciers in Kilimanjaro have melted by 70%. Since 1980, 14 of the 27 glaciers in Spain have disappeared one after another.

A large number of animals and plants migrate to high latitude (or cooler) habitats. The warm climate also threatens the survival of tropical coral reefs. As for the causes of climate change, scientists have ruled out natural factors, such as periodic energy bursts of the sun and volcanic activity. Most of the warming phenomena monitored in the past 50 years are caused by human activities.

Although the scientific community has reached a consensus, the Bush administration still insists that the forced reduction of carbon dioxide emissions will affect the normal operation of the economy. At present, the United States mainly relies on people's wishes and research and development of new energy sources to solve the problem of greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, us energy information administration predicted that carbon dioxide emissions from energy use in the United States will increase by 40% in the next 20 years. Scientists use the global climate model to infer the future climate, and all the conclusions are almost the same: by 2 100, the temperature will rise by 1.4 to 5.7℃; At the same time, it is inferred that the sea level will rise by 8.9 to 88.4 cm in this century. Even if the sea level only rises by 30 cm, the tropical coastline will retreat by 30 meters. Sea level rise is mainly caused by thermal expansion of seawater, but some of it comes from melting water from glaciers and ice sheets. Of course, accurately measuring sea level is a complex task, which will soon be divorced from the essence of science and controlled by politics, as Tuvaluans have recently seen.

The first victim of the greenhouse effect

On the deep-water wharf in Funafuti, there is a building similar to a mobile toilet, surrounded by iron fences. It is one of the 12 monitoring stations set up by the Australian government in the Pacific Ocean, aiming at 1992 "measuring sea level and related meteorological parameters". In 2000, the Australian National Tide Center announced that after seven years of monitoring in the Pacific Ocean, "no signs of sea level rise were found". This caused an uproar in the scientific community. Especially for Tuvalu, their conclusion is a blatant provocation-the National Tide Center of Australia says that the sea level in Funafuti has actually dropped by 8.6 cm since 1993. Therefore, countries such as Australia and the United States, which are strongly opposed to limiting carbon dioxide emissions, cheered, but the real reason for Tuvalu's sea level decline is El Ni? o, which is a climate anomaly caused by the interaction between seawater and atmosphere in the tropical Pacific Ocean. This anomaly is particularly prominent in 1997 and 1998, but long-term observation shows that the sea level in Funafuti has indeed risen. In addition, the local tides are also expanding year by year. According to the statistics of Funafuti weather station from June 5438 to February last year, the sea level has been rising at a rate of 0.56 cm per year for nearly ten years.

Some scientists don't doubt the theory of sea level rise, but they think that low-lying islands like Tuvalu may not be submerged. Tuvalu and other atolls are dynamic because they are gradually accumulated and replenished by corals. Some small islands in Tuvalu were even enlarged by a hurricane in 1972. New Zealand oceanographers use computer program models to simulate the situation in Tuvalu. They predict that repeated waves will change the shape of the atoll edge and erode part of the coastline, but will not engulf the island. Sea level rise will accelerate the growth of hard corals under the sea surface to protect the coastline. However, most researchers believe that a large amount of carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater will slow down the growth of coral reefs, and high temperature will kill many coral populations and make the coastline more fragile.

In the short term, bad weather poses a direct threat to the people of Tuvalu. With the increase of atmospheric temperature, rainfall will increase, and so will rain. After the rain stopped, the high temperature quickly evaporated the surface water. In this way, droughts and floods will occur frequently. Some scientists predict that global warming will aggravate the intensity of El Ni? o phenomenon, and the resulting hurricane will bring even greater disaster to Tuvalu. The main part of Tuvalu is formed by the eruption of submarine active volcano, and there is no continental shelf and shoal to disperse the energy of waves, so even a distant storm can affect it.

The islanders told stories of increasingly violent and frequent storms. Tipka Island used to have beautiful scenery. Residents walk in dense forests, swim in clear lagoons, chop coconuts with machetes and drink coconut juice. There used to be a landscape like the Garden of Eden. However, now the sight of Tipka Island is creepy: the land has become bare, and the barren sand dunes are littered with discarded plastic bottles and all kinds of garbage.

If it is admitted that the unwise behavior of human beings pushed Tuvalu to the bottom of the sea, who should be blamed for the fault? During World War II, the US military set up a transportation station in Tuvalu, which later became the British Ellis Islands, to counter the Japanese-controlled Tarawa Island. Because the seawall built during the war has long been fragmented, the lagoon edge of Funafuti has been seriously eroded by seawater. The main materials of Funafuti's airport runway, seashore protective wall and many World War II buildings come from porous coral reefs, and the deep pits formed by excavation are now filled with dirty seawater and garbage. But war is not the only culprit. Islanders have been mining rocks, gravel and sand as building materials, which has destroyed the surrounding ecological environment. In the late 1980s, international aid organizations supported the island's civilians to repair the coastal protective wall with the rubble from the hurricane. In addition, the population explosion is also a major reason. Since 1980, the population of Funafuti has increased from 2,000 to 4,500, which is equivalent to half of the total population of Tuvalu.

Noah's Ark in Tuvalu-Living elsewhere?

To some extent, Tuvalu is a microcosm of the world. Its environmental management is not better than that of most countries (which will also accelerate the greenhouse effect), but because of its fragility, remoteness, lack of resources and low terrain, its room for making mistakes is far less than that of other countries. The future-or the end-will come soon.

Kaurua Tarek became Prime Minister of Tuvalu in 200 1 12. Previously, he served on the board of a company in California. In 2002, Tarek announced that Tuvalu, together with Kiribati and Maldives, would file a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice in The Hague against the threat of global warming caused by excessive carbon dioxide emissions from the United States and Australia. However, he failed in the re-election in 2003, and the new government failed to continue the litigation plan. Whether Tuvalu can win such a lawsuit has also become the focus of discussion. First of all, it is difficult to establish a direct relationship between the greenhouse gas emissions of specific countries and the harm to Tuvalu. Secondly, the United States has never accepted arbitration by most international courts.

Tarek had hoped that the lawsuit would bring Tuvalu millions of dollars in compensation to make up for the losses caused by greenhouse gas emissions. But this is secondary. The people of Tuvalu are looking for shelter. There are many uninhabited places in Australia or America. He, his wife and children now live in Oakland, USA. There are many Tuvalu communities in New Zealand. A large number of Tuvaluans came here from afar to seek educational opportunities and good medical standards, although most new immigrants now make a living by picking strawberries.

On a gloomy and cold Sunday, Tuvalu immigrants from Auckland held a ceremony in a suburban church. Pastor Joseph kept smiling, but his face showed fatigue. New Zealand may have a brighter future for these island residents who have squeezed into a metropolis with a population of one million. Their compatriots can receive higher education and enjoy medical benefits without being threatened by global warming. However, in 2002, the New Zealand government launched the quota immigration plan for Pacific island countries, giving Tuvalu only 75 immigration places every year. But Joseph said that only 265,438+0 people were approved in 2003.

When the chorus of believers echoed in the auditorium, the high-pitched hymns spread their wings over the islanders' heads. There are 200 adults and some children here. 1/4 visa has expired and faces deportation.

On that day, some Tuvaluans said they thought of the story of Noah's Ark. "On Noah's ark," one man said, "the rainbow is a symbol of God's promise that the flood will never appear again." But another person said, "The sea level is rising because things have changed. The world created by God is perfect, but people have brought it flaws. " (small compilation)

To reduce CO2 emissions, the whole world attaches importance to environmental protection and ecological protection, and * * * is the same as curbing environmental degradation.

2. Recently, the State Oceanic Administration officially issued the 2006 China Marine Environmental Quality Bulletin, the China Marine Disaster Bulletin and the China Sea Level Bulletin. Li Chunxian, spokesperson and director of the Office of the State Oceanic Administration, said frankly that in 2006, the overall pollution situation in the China sea area was still grim, and the pollution situation in the coastal waters had not been improved.

According to China Marine Environmental Quality Bulletin, in 2006, the area of China's whole sea area that failed to meet the water quality standard of clean sea area was about 6.5438+0.5 million square kilometers, an increase of about 6.5438+0.5 million square kilometers compared with 2005. The pollution situation in coastal waters has not been improved, mainly distributed in Liaodong Bay, Bohai Bay, Changjiang Estuary, Hangzhou Bay, Jiangsu Coast, Pearl River Estuary and some coastal waters of large and medium-sized cities. Among them, inorganic nitrogen, active phosphate and petroleum have become the main pollutants in coastal waters. The area of Bohai Sea that does not meet the clean water quality standards accounts for 26% ~ 4 1% of the total sea area, and still ranks first among the four sea areas.

In 2006, marine administrative departments at all levels in China further strengthened the monitoring of land-based sewage outlets, and comprehensively monitored the sewage discharge status of more than 600 land-based sewage outlets and the ecological environment of some nearby sea areas. More than 80% of the sewage outlets discharge pollutants beyond the standard, and the sewage outlets that exceed the standard are mainly distributed in the Bohai Sea, the Yangtze River estuary and the coastal areas of Guangxi. The main pollutants exceeding the standard are chemical oxygen demand, phosphate, ammonia nitrogen, petroleum and fecal coliform. Among the four sea areas, the proportion of sewage outlets exceeding the standard along the Bohai Sea is the highest, reaching 90.4%. Last year, the State Oceanic Administration also carried out the monitoring of characteristic pollutants in some sewage outlets for the first time. The staff detected persistent organic pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls, as well as highly toxic heavy metals such as thallium, beryllium and antimony.

The China Marine Environmental Quality Bulletin pointed out that last year, the ecological environment of the sea area near the sewage outlet in China continued to deteriorate, and the ecological environment quality of the sea area near more than 60% of the sewage outlets was in a very poor state; The degree of seawater pollution is aggravated, and the seawater quality in more than 80% of the monitoring areas is Grade IV and IV. The benthic community structure deteriorated and the pollution-resistant species increased. Most of the benthic economic shellfish in the sea area near the sewage outlet are difficult to survive, and there are even more than 30 square kilometers of benthic zone. The deterioration trend of ecosystem health in coastal waters has not been effectively alleviated, and most of the bays, estuaries, coastal wetlands and other ecosystems are still in sub-health or unhealthy state, mainly manifested in eutrophication of water bodies and imbalance of nutrients, degradation of spawning grounds in estuaries, loss or change of habitats, abnormal biological community structure and so on. Last year, the red tide caused by toxic algae in China was still at a high level; The invasion of marine alien species is serious; The scope and intensity of coastal erosion are still increasing. However, coastal tourist resorts and bathing beaches have good environmental conditions; The environmental quality of marine dumping area and marine oil and gas development zone basically meets the environmental requirements of functional areas; The ecological environment quality of marine protected areas is generally good; About 60% of the mariculture area can meet the requirements of aquaculture waters.

At the same time, the China Marine Disaster Bulletin clearly pointed out that 2006 was the worst year of marine disasters in China, with a total of 179 disastrous marine processes such as storm surge, waves, sea ice, red tide and tsunami, which was basically the same as the previous year. Storm surge is the main marine disaster in 2006. In addition, there is another remarkable feature: the sea ice disaster in some areas of China was serious last year, among which the ice situation in Laizhou Bay was the most serious in the last 25 years, with the ice accumulation on its shore reaching 1 m, and most coastal ports were paralyzed. Last year, the tsunami threat, which was widely concerned by the public, still existed. China received the global earthquake and tsunami information 6 1 time in real time, and the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center monitored, analyzed and warned three earthquakes and tsunamis that may affect China. Analysis, early warning and real-time monitoring show that the three earthquakes and tsunamis did not cause disasters.

At present, the disaster of sea level rise has been highly concerned by coastal countries all over the world. According to the characteristics of sea level change, the State Oceanic Administration publishes the China Sea Level Bulletin every three years. According to the communique, from 2003 to 2006, the sea level changes along the coast of China showed an upward trend, and the rising rate was still higher than the global average (2.5 mm/year), which aggravated marine disasters such as storm surge, coastal erosion and salt water intrusion, affected the social and economic development in coastal areas to varying degrees, and threatened people's lives and property safety. The communique also predicts that the coastal sea level in China will continue to rise in the next three years, reaching 10 year, 9 ~ 3 1 mm higher than that in 2006. Among them, the sea level in Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangdong and other coastal areas has risen by a large margin, ranging from 9 mm to 38 mm. (Yang Wei)