NERC (Report) (Hansard, 15 November 1988)

§ Mr. Kenneth Baker

The annual report of the Natural Environment Research Council for 1987–88 has been submitted to me under the requirements of the Science and Technology Act 1965, and a copy is being laid before the House today.

I was most interested to study the report and, in an eventful year for the council, I was particularly encouraged to note:

(i) the latest advances in knowledge by the British Antarctic Survey concerning the pattern of continental break-up in part of the Antarctic peninsula, formerly a critical margin of Gondwanaland; and of the effects elsewhere of acid deposition in polar ice—the so called "acid flush";
(ii) the launch of the Polar Anglo-American conjugate experiment involving collaborative research with the John Hopkins university in the USA in the processes at work in the earth's space environment from both polar regions simultaneously;
(iii) further research on the increased severity of the ozone hole in 1987; and progress with commissioned studies into the influence of the greenhouse effect of changes in temperature, rainfall, carbon dioxide and ultra-violet radiation on the Earth's eco-systems;
(iv) pioneering work by the British Institutions reflection profiling syndicate on deep crustal studies—particularly including the first recognition, anywhere in the world, of spectacular mantle events; the identification of ancient plate boundaries; and increased knowledge about the deep structure of ancient mountain belts and the evolution of sedimentary basins. I understand that data secured in this way now make the British Isles the world's best known lithosphere (crust and mantle) with structures imaged throughout the 30 km thickness of the crust and a further 50 km down into the upper mantle;
(v) the development by a team at the Institute for Marine Environmental Research of a new method for assessing the relative pollution of communities of bottom-living marine invertebrates.

I congratulate the council on these and other achievements and look forward to further exciting scientific achievement in 1989.