Takes climate changes into account
* Gives orders to build higher quays
Kystverket [Norwegian Coastal Administration] is going to increase the height of all molos and quays, because the sea is rising and the storms will get worse.
By Ole Magnus Rapp, Tromsø
Cautious estimates show that the sea will rise by about 80 centimeters in South Norway in the course of this centure. In the north the rise will be a bit less. The case is one of thermic expansion, that each molecule becomes a little bit bigger because of the increased temperature.
The seas will rise even more if the Greenland ice melts, and the increase will be dramatic if the ice in the Antarctic is reduced.
- We have to take into account and adapt ourselves to the climate changes in all planning, says fiskeri- og kystminister [roughly Minister of Fisheries and Coasts] Helga Pedersen. She's given a clear order to Kystverket, who plans and authorizes most things built near water.
Quays and molos shall henceforth be built higher than before. The department has not specified exact heights, but asks Kystverket to take into account the consequences of the coming temperature increases.
"Must act now". The fiskeri- og kystminister doesn't hide the fact that the developments with less predictable and wilder weather are frightening.
- But the climate changes are happening now, and we must act. One thing is to reduce our output of harmful climate gases [yes, the original does say "climate gases"], but we also have to make practical adaptations, she says to Aftenposten [the newspaper].
Statsråden [roughly the Cabinet Minister] opened yesterday an international climate conference in Tromsø, where 60 scientists from a number of nations examine the consequences for people living by the coast. Norsk institutt for luftforskning (NILU) [Norwegian Institute for Air Research] is responsible for the conference. An important subject is to give communities advice on how to prepare for the ice melting, the water rising, and the weather becoming more extreme.
- The coastal areas are vulnerable, and the stability will change in the coming years, says professor Jozef Pacyna, who leads the center for ecological economy at NILU.
- We politicians need scientific advice about the climate changes. Here are still many unanswered questions, and the development seems to be going markedly faster than what we first fears, says statsråd Helga Pedersen.
Worst in the north. Scientist Georg Hansen at NILU has for a number of years been tracking the development of the climate. He sees an accelerating development.
- In the course of 50 years the average air temperature in South Norway will rise with 2 degrees [Celsius]. That's dramatic. At the same time we must remember that the changes will be even more dramatic in the Arctic, with an increase between 4 and 6 degrees. [Norway always uses Celsius.] Some models operate with an increase of between 4 and 12 degrees in the north, he says.
- The air temperature leads to less ice and snow, which until now have isolated sea and land. Now that the ice is gone the sea absorbs more sunlight, and the temperature increases here too. On land, e.g. the permafrost will melt - this releases methane which will increase the global warming further.
Georg Hansen says a lot of uncertainty is bound to the inland ice on Greenland and to the Antarctic.
- These are wild cards in the climate changes. The ice is melting along the coast of Greenland, but increasing in the inland. We don't know what this leads to. In the Antarctic one also sees that much of the stability is being changed.
"The climate changes are happening now, and we must act. One thing is to reduce our output of harmful climate gases, but we also have to make practical adaptations."
