Sustainable Transport and the Environment Guide - Unite the Union

4 Docks, Inland Waterways, and Fisheries and Sustainable Transport
4.1: Introduction
For the 200,000 years of human existence, the seas and oceans have always been rich
in life and a source of abundant food. We have treated them as if they were limitless
resource. But we can do so no longer. The awe-inspiring – and mostly damaging –
changes to the pre-human order started first on land, then on our coasts and now in the
atmosphere by the planet’s billions of human inhabitants are beginning to affect even
the oceans that cover over two-thirds of the globe.
The seas are not boiling hot, but their surface waters are noticeably warmer than they
were even 50 years ago, and this is largely as a result of human-induced climate
change. Even the most restrained scientific reports on the state of the oceans make
alarming reading for anyone who cares about the health of the seas.
“Ocean surface waters are warming, the sea level is rising ever faster, the oceans are
becoming increasingly acidic and marine ecosystems are under threat,” was the
measured conclusion of the German Advisory Council on Global Change in its report
44 on the future of our seas. “Human activities are unleashing processes of change in
the oceans that are without precedent in the past several million years.”
The UK’s economy has historically been based on our position as a trading nation, for
centuries with an empire that made it easy to access to colonial markets and exploit
their raw materials. Whilst some have suggested that Britain could meet much more
of its own food and material needs, and that this might benefit both social
sustainability (jobs) and environmental sustainability, few would want to live in an
economy without any overseas imports at all – particularly those which we could not
produce ourselves, such as coffee, chocolate, citrus fruit, and spices.
The importance of shipping and trade to the economy of the UK, an island nation, has
resulted in the establishment of a large number of ports around the coast, which are
very diverse in terms of size and type of cargo handled.
Therefore our seaports are important transports hubs where ship, road and rail
converge, and our inland waterways should be used as main arteries of our industrial
infrastructure, rather than just a leisure facility.
The importance of shipping and trade to the economy of the UK, an island nation, has
resulted in the establishment of a large number of ports around the coast, which are
very diverse in terms of size and type of cargo handled.
4.2 Rising Sea levels
A rise in sea levels and other changes fuelled by global warming threaten roads, rail
lines, ports, airports and other important infrastructure in the United Kingdom. It was
nearly 200 years ago that Lord Byron foresaw the flooding of Venice. And as an
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