China's Green Goo

The United States has its oil gusher. China, not to be outdone, counters with a massive spread of green goo, and a flotilla to try to clean it up. Canny readers will notice the reference to unprecedented heat waves ….

…a massive tide of algae that is approaching the coast of Qingdao.

The outbreak is thought to be caused by high ocean temperatures and excess nitrogen runoff from agriculture and fish farms.

Scientists involved in the operation say the seaweed known as enteromorpha needs to be cleaned up before it decomposes on beaches and releases noxious gases.

…And more is on the way. Northern China has been experiencing the hottest week of the year – in some areas, such as Beijing, temperatures have reached highs not seen in decades – which was accelerating the growth of the algae.

Green and red tides have become increasingly common across the world since the 1970s. Usually they occur in coastal water near densely populated areas or where there is large-scale runoff of agricultural chemicals from farmland.

China has been particularly affected in recent years. An even bigger outbreak off Qingdao, estimated at 170,000 tonnes, in 2008 threatened to ruin the sailing events for the Olympics, prompting the authorities to call on hundreds of local fishermen to help them in the cleanup operation.

…”At a fundamental level, the way to deal with this should be to combat climate change and control pollution,” said Mao Yunxiang, a professor at the College of Marine Life, Ocean University of China, who is a consultant on the operation.

“We should also consider the possibility that the green tide are inevitable so we should make use of them. The algae can clean water, and be harvested for animal feed and biofertiliser.”

Guardian.UK

Now, if we could only get climate change to stink a little bit in Oklahoma and other denier states!