Today is the international Blog Action Day 2010, on the issue of water. I think we should all welcome this initiative. Water is both literally and metaphorically, “vital” for the very future of life on Earth.

You might think that as European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries my job deals with the seas and oceans and has little to do with freshwater issues. Not so I’m afraid. The natural cycles of freshwater and salt water are in fact strongly intertwined and can hardly be looked at in isolation.

Some examples?

- The effects of climate change on ocean circulation directly affect rain patterns on land, which in turn determine the presence – or not – of drinking water.

- The pollution of rivers causes not only scarcity of drinking water and all the related problems of water cleaning: it is also a problem for the seas, as 80% of all the pollution that the seas take in actually comes from the land. Read the full entry

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