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| Sophie Hardach | London, UK |
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| More than 1.6 million tonnes of unexploded weapons are strewn across the North Sea and Baltic Sea. In this week's edition, we learn about the robots and seabed crawlers cleaning up these toxic munitions, while protecting vulnerable marine ecosystems. Plus, we look at the race to clean up cruising and spotlight the US cities claiming to be "climate havens". | |
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CLIMATE CONVERSATION | The robots hunting WW2 bombs | ![Sea crawler Crawler to retrieve small munition](https://www.emailimagecdnadz7.com/yrv4xtw6qg/en_us/images/6683ff60e2d84-1719926624.9292.jpg) | Robots are removing wartime munitions from the ocean. Credit: Getty Images | This week we're visiting Lübeck Bay in Germany, where a team of underwater robots are about to embark on a dramatic mission: clearing wartime bombs.
At the bottom of the North Sea, metal claws are picking up mines, bombs and grenades. Specially adapted underwater vehicles, swimming robots and so-called "smart grabbers" are hunting for unexploded ordnance on the ocean floor.
Elsewhere, conservation experts are finding ways to safely destroy munitions in a detonation chamber on an offshore platform. The goal is to develop a process that can retrieve and destroy sea-dumped munition on an industrial scale – and ultimately clear all of Germany's waters of wartime munitions.
The issue is especially urgent as scientists have found that the dumped munitions are rusting and releasing toxic substances, traces of which have been found in fish and mussels. It is also endangering beach-goers and fishing crews – and getting in the way of Europe's massively expanding offshore wind farms, which are needed to reach its climate goals.
This interactive map shows where conventional and chemical weapons have been found in the North and Baltic Seas. There is an estimated 1.6 million tonnes of dumped munitions in German waters alone – including huge dumping grounds where the Allied Forces disposed of Germany's weapons after the end of World War Two in 1945. |
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![Map unexploded munitions Europe A map of where dumped conventional or chemical munitions have been found in Europe](https://www.emailimagecdnadz7.com/yrv4xtw6qg/en_us/images/668400a2365eb-1719926946.2227.jpg) | A map of where dumped conventional or chemical munitions have been found in Europe. Credit: European Atlas of the Seas/EMODnet | And this map shows Europe's existing and planned offshore wind farms – also in the North and Baltic Seas. To avoid accidentally ramming wind turbines into mines and other unexploded ordnance (UXO), wind farm developers routinely survey areas for UXO before construction starts, often using robots to remove this threat.
What's new about the German project is that it combines these existing bomb-removing technologies into a process that can tackle not just individual mines or bombs, but densely littered sites where many different kinds of weapons are mixed up. Crucially, the process avoids blasting the munition at sea, a conventional way of getting rid of UXO that can risk spreading toxic substances.
The project is motivated by environmental reasons, to protect fragile marine ecosystems. But if successful, experts told me that the new process could also be useful for wind farm developers – potentially helping them destroy UXO in a way that's safe, and environmentally friendly.
Read my full story about the German robots hunting the sea for WW2 bombs. |
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TAKE A MOMENT | The search for a true 'climate haven' | Far from the wildfires of the US's west coast and the hurricanes of the south-east, does the city of Buffalo live up to its epithet of climate haven? | |
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CLIMATE QUIZ | Of the new vehicles sold worldwide this year, how many will be electric? | A. Fewer than one in three | B. More than one in five | C. About one in nine
Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter for the answer. |
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| The race to clean up cruising | ![The Icon of the Seas cruise ship The Icon of the Seas cruise ship](https://www.emailimagecdnadz7.com/yrv4xtw6qg/en_us/images/668401e742c34-1719927271.2735.jpg) | Cruises are a particularly carbon-intensive way to travel compared to many other types of holiday. Credit: Getty Images | As ever-larger cruise ships cut through the waves, more and more fuel is being used to propel them forward. The world's largest cruise liner has turned to a fossil fuel called liquified natural gas (LNG), which it says is cleaner than heavy marine fuel usually used on large ships – though LNG also comes with large methane emissions. As cruise ticket sales reach their highest ever level, Isabelle Gerretsen asks: is there a greener way to sail the seas? | |
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AND FINALLY... | A glimpse into the icy heart of a storm cloud has left scientists "absolutely thrilled". The researchers were able to track the ice, snow and rain within the cloud as it floated to the east of Japan, and measure how quickly its droplets fell to Earth. Previously only ground-based weather stations have been used to provide such information, but this data came from a satellite. The development opens up wider possibilities for better understanding the nature of clouds, and their influence on the climate. See the first-of-a-kind cloud image here. |
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