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Frightening projections by UK’s Met Office on impacts of climate change, rising seas

Times 25th Nov 2018 , The Met Office warns tomorrow that climate change and rising sea levels will threaten more than 1.5m homes, turn farmland into marsh and wash away beaches by the end of the century. Its UK Climate Projections report
forecasts that the seas around Britain are likely to increase by 3-4ft by 2100, inundating low-lying land, putting 1.7m homes at risk and destroying many holiday beaches.

Some coastal towns may have to be abandoned because the huge cost of sea defences will make them “unviable”. Many stretches of prime, low-lying farmland could also be lost, with the lowest, such as Romney Marsh in Kent, the Somerset Levels and parts of Essex facing near-permanent inundation.

In some areas the impacts could reach far inland. Much of the farmland between King’s Lynn in Norfolk and Cambridge,
for example, would lie below the new sea level and so be at risk of turning to marsh. Across the UK, such a rise would leave 100,000 coastal properties at risk from wave erosion, with another 100,000 sited on seaside cliffs at risk from landslips. Up to 1.7m homes would face flooding, according to a recent report from the Committee on Climate Change.

The Met Officeprojections are the culmination of a three-year project commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. The aim is to help  policymakers prepare transport, power and other infrastructure for what is
likely to be the fastest change in climate humanity has experienced. Those changes are driven by greenhouse gas emissions, currently equivalent to 50bn tons of CO2 a year. About 1bn tons come from the UK, when imports and
aviation are included.  https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f90ee99a-f025-11e8-9fcf-225198b37f0e

November 25, 2018 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, UK