Coastal villages may be abandoned to the sea
The Telegraph has an article today about the British coastline and flooding. A few days ago, a storm surge travelling down the North Sea nearly combined with high tides to overtop the flood defenses across much of the East coast of England. Another few inches could have caused widespread flooding similar to that experienced in 1953, when 300 people were killed. Today the UK government admitted rising sea levels mean a number of coastal communities will disappear within the next thirty years. Some low lying villages and farms in Norfolk, Suffolk and Somerset are too vulnerable and would be impossible to save without spending inordinate billions on sea defences. This is a discussion many governments will be having over the coming decade.
[via Daily Kos, image from the Telegraph]
November 12th, 2007 at 3:41 am
Horrifying, isn’t it? A lot of people I know don’t seem to understand the risks of even a slight rise in sea level. Which is all the more alarming for the fact that the city where I live is not only coastal, but flat as a pancake and just a few feet above sea level …
… as if I needed an excuse for not having invested in property!
November 12th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Which city is that? The story I wrote for Interzone’s Mundane issue revolved around sea levels inundating London - whilst the newly built Severn Barrage protected Bristol from a similar fate as well as producing a load of energy to make it a viable place to move the capital. It didn’t make the issue but I hope it’ll be placed somewhere.
I was on one of the beaches marked on the map near Weston Super Mare yesterday so this story really hit home for me!
November 13th, 2007 at 12:14 am
What the heck were you doing on a beach in November? You wacky English.
November 13th, 2007 at 3:29 am
Jeremy; we’re used to the cold. It gives us our uniquely bitter and sarcastic national sense of humour!
Tomas; Portsmouth, for my sins. A few hundred years ago half the island was undrained tidal swamps, so it’ll just be a case of nature reclaiming it’s own …