Ecological Setting - Backhaus highlights the significance of the Baltic Sea in preserving the climate.
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's Environment Minister Till Backhaus (SPD) highlighted the significance of the Baltic Sea for combating climate change on World Oceans Day on Saturday. According to him, coastal water bodies critically impact the climate by acting as 'carbon sinks'. These sinks soak up a large share of the carbon dioxide emissions produced by humans from the atmosphere and store them beneath the seabed.
The state boasts a coastline that stretches for nearly 2,000 kilometers. "Each one of us must handle our coastal waters with care," mentioned Backhaus in Schwerin. Human waste poses a major threat to the Baltic Sea ecosystem. This includes cigarette butts with microplastics littering the beaches to plastic waste floating in the sea.
However, the minister clarified that only around 30% of the debris in the Baltic Sea is generated there. The rest of the trash is transported via rivers or flung into the ocean from the beaches.
This waste doesn't just endanger seabirds, fish, and other aquatic creatures, which could confuse plastic elements for their natural food or get entangled in them, inflicting a painful death. There's also a worry that hazardous substances present in the material might pose a risk to human food.
