Life Below Water

• [New] The £165 million West Cumbria Mining project is to extract coking coal from below the Irish Sea for steel production, which will emit an estimated 8.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year when burned.
• [New] Over the next century, rising sea levels will gradually flood coastal communities around the world, displacing millions of people and posing an existential danger for many island nations.
• [New] Hanoi - Saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta in the 2020-2021 dry season will be less severe than in the 2019-2020 dry season, with the highest level expected to be in February and March in Mekong River estuary and in March and April in Vam Co and Cai Lon rivers.
• [New] 13.1 million people in the United States alone would be living on land that will be considered flooded with a sea level rise (SLR) of six feet by 2100.
• [New] Territorial Issues: Aside from Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait (including Pratas Reef), Beijing will pressure Biden's Washington to acquiesce to the legitimacy of China's freedom of action in the South China Sea, East China Sea/Japan, Greater Tibet/India' s Himalayan borderlands.
• [New] If Biden gives in too easily, China will press for cessation of US Navy transits of the Taiwan Strait and the end of US air surveillance of Chinese air force and naval incursions in Taiwan's air defense zones.
• [New] In the best-case scenario of reaching the Paris target of capping global warming at 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, sea level will rise between 1 and 2 feet by 2100.
• [New] Even under strong warming, the IPCC's likely projections for 2100 involve the ice sheets providing less than 1% of their potential sea-level rise to the ocean, leaving a substantial possible contribution.
• [New] A major marine heatwave off the coast of Western Australia was forecast just last week, with temperatures in early 2021 expected to rise to their highest level in a decade.
• [New] No scientist is expecting anything even close to that this century, but after the Earth surpasses a certain level of warming, ice sheets become less stable and less predictable, with potential tipping points coming into play.
• On the UK side there was much talk of the 'Sea of Opportunity' and some extravagant claims that £1.6 billion worth of fish per year should be repatriated to the UK via Brexit.
• Sea level rise can increase storm surge damages by a factor of two for exposed cities such as New York, Miami, and Houston, and make a 1-in - 50-year event today more like a 1-in - 30-year event by 2050.
• The £2.6 billion project at the 95-hectare Blyth Power Station site will use renewable energy from the UK and possibly hydro-electric power generated in Norway and transmitted 447 miles under the North Sea through the 'world's longest inter-connector' from the North Sea Link project.
• A further £1.4 million has been awarded to the UK Environment Agency to fund 'woodlands for water' - 15 projects to plant over 850,000 trees that will protect around 160 km of river and help to reduce the risk of flooding to over 500 properties.
• Current human use of the ocean is unsustainable but the tension between human commerce and protecting the ocean will grow as the global population is expected to reach 10 B by 2050.
• The Arctic would be ice-free during the summer months by the 2040s and sea levels would rise by 60 cm in the Gulf of Mexico, which would lead to devastating storms.
• Ministers agreed the catch limits for over 200 commercial fish stocks in the Atlantic, the North Sea, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea for 2021.
• Great River Energy now has agreements with five wind farms to provide power to help compensate for the planned closure of its massive coal plant in North Dakota by 2023.
• A new study shows the coastal protection coral reefs currently provide will start eroding by the end of the century, as the world continues to warm and the oceans acidify.

Last updated: 10 January 2021