Major threats foreseen due to Europe’s changing marine environments

Project CLAMER (Flanders Marine Institute, (VLIZ) Oostende, Belgium, and             Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), Texel, Netherlands)

13 September 2011

Sea levels, erosion top public concerns

Europeans face greater risk of illness, property damage and job losses because of the impacts of climate change on the seas around them.

Worried citizens, whose biggest related top-of-mind concerns are sea level rise and coastal erosion, are taking personal actions to reduce carbon emissions. However, they largely blame climate change on other groups of people or nations and assign governments and industry responsibility for mitigating the problem (though they perceive government and industry as ineffective on the issue).

Those are among the conclusions after scientists synthesized an extensive collection of academic papers published since 1998 on climate change and Europe’s marine environments, combined with a groundbreaking companion poll of Europeans on the issues, commissioned as part of Project CLAMER, a collaboration of 17 European marine institutes.

The 200-page synthesis of more than 100 EU-funded projects, the public survey, a new book based on the scientific findings, and a major new documentary film will be featured at CLAMER’s wrap-up meeting Sept. 14-15 in Brussels.

News release in full, click here

Example coverage, by The Associated Press, click here, by Reuters, click here

Coverage summary, click here