IPSWICH MP Chris Mole is today starting a five-day trip to the research centre which discovered the wreck of the Titanic in 1985.
IPSWICH MP Chris Mole is today starting a five-day trip to the research centre which discovered the wreck of the Titanic in 1985.
However, Mr Mole insisted his trip was not a parliamentary jaunt and will provide valuable research in the battle against global warming.
He is part of the all-party science and technology committee visiting the world-famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute at Cape Cod in Massachusetts this week.
The centre was the base of Robert Ballard when he discovered the wreck of the Titanic.
Mr Mole said: “We have already looked at research being done in Plymouth and I am bringing the committee to Suffolk to visit the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science laboratories in Lowestoft later in the year.
“But we wanted to compare the way our research is carried out with the best in the world, so we are going to look at Woods Hole.
“I know some people may ask what relevance this has to Ipswich, but scientists there are doing much work on climate change and carbon dioxide emissions and that subject affects everyone on the planet.”
Mr Mole said the institute had done much work on how much CO2 was absorbed by the oceans and what effect that had on in the water.
He said: “That helps to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere which seems good, but it is turning the water more acidic and that is having an effect on plankton.
“That has a knock-on effect on other life and it also means the oceans may be able to absorb less of the gas in the future. Some scientists believe loss of plankton could be more devastating than the loss of rainforests.”
He said he would try to offset the CO2 being created by his journey across the Atlantic by planting a tree when he returned home.
More information on the institute is available at www.whoi.edu.
N Is it worth spending public money to send Mr Mole to the institute to find out about climate change? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk
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