Baltic Sea needs urgent attention

"There is no time to waste" is an appeal that has been heard many times with respect to the Baltic Sea. The land-locked sea is suffering, and climate change is not helping the situation.
      The changes predicted by the International Panel on Climate Change in its report have a direct bearing on the balance in the sensitive body of brackish water. Summers are growing drier, winter rains are increasing, and the surface temperature of the sea is heading upwards. The surface level of the sea is also rising.
      In addition, there is eutrophication, loss of oxygen, algae blooms, environmental toxins, and the risks linked with oil transport. The list of potential threats facing the sea is uncomfortably long, and predictions by marine researchers become more pessimistic with each successive forecast.
     
More effective chemical purification of waste water could have a significant effect on reducing emissions of nutrients, which feed toxic blue-green algae, which appears regularly in the summer.
      The city of St. Petersburg has upgraded its sewage treatment systems, with encouragement and assistance from Finland, including funding from the John Nurminen Foundation.
      "The situation in the Gulf of Finland could improve in five years, but only if there are no new emissions from other sources, such as agriculture", says Minna Mäki of the John Nurminen Foundation.
      The Baltic Sea has been choking on emissions for several decades, with large parts of the sea bottom showing no signs of life. The dead zones at the sea bottom are the source of more than half of the phosphorous load at the bottom of the sea.
      There are concerns over the implications of the increasing use of chemical fertilisers by farms in the Baltic Countries and Poland, and Finland has also not managed to reduce agricultural emissions as much as it would have liked.
     
During the coming weeks Helsingin Sanomat will report from nine locations in the countries with shoreline on the Baltic. The series of articles will conclude in mid-May, at which time Helsingin Sanomat will hold a public event in Helsinki. The event will coincide with the publication of an issue of the HS Teema magazine.
      During the tour of locations around the Baltic, readers of the Helsingin Sanomat online service will be able to test how their lifestyle affects the Baltic, and read about possible ways to ease the burden on the sea. Helsingin Sanomat is also helping the John Nurminen Foundation raise funds for protection of the Baltic.
     
The newspaper feels that it is important to report on the condition of the Baltic, and what might be done on its behalf. It is hoped that the series of reports will provide food for thought. Helsingin Sanomat feels that the responsibility is not just with the decision-makers. This is about a common responsibility for coming generations; Finland cannot allow blue-green algae and oil spills to spoil the beaches, or heavy metal levels to make fish inedible.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  St. Petersburg reduces phosphorous emissions into Gulf of Finland (2.10.2007)
  Progressively tighter emission standards for ships on Baltic Sea (9.4.2008)
  Cities of Helsinki and Turku taking serious action to improve state of Baltic Sea (12.9.2007)
  Warm August weather favours growth of algae both at sea and in lakes (9.8.2007)

Links:
  John Nurminen Foundation: Clean Baltic Sea