Posting purely from outrage right now about something I don't think was ever even mentioned to me, even though I worked in the ship building industry for a little while. I never had to design a ballast system (among many other things...) so that must be the reason my experience didn't educate me on this topic.
Anyhow, here's what I found out today that is really important to share: ships carry ballast water for stability, compensation of lost weight by fuel consumption etc... in doing so, ballast tanks carry marine life among which some multiply into pest proportion. They are then carried like the merchandise or whatever the ships take with them, and infest the destinations.
This page from the International Maritime Organisation website (http://www.imo.org/OurWork/Environment/BallastWaterManagement/Pages/Default.aspx) points out that the spread of invasive species is now recognized as one of the greatest threats to the ecological and the economic well being of the planet. Follow the link to the article and it will explain.
Quoting Dominique Bourg, French philosopher recently interviewed by our colleague Ludovic Coutant (http://www.leblogdudd.fr/) "the first duty of a citizen is to be informed", hence sharing information is critical.
My question is why are such things not on mainstream media?? Well ships carry most of the goods we consume, so the stakes are super high!... At what cost do we take all this stuff that come from all over the world?? I hope with this blog to create a good repertoire of issues like this and investigate a bit more of what's being done and can be done about it...
This blog's purpose is essentially to share news about this new life in Europe and beyond. I may post about sustainability, windsurfing, or whatever I feel like from time to time.
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