Reported on the BBC website:
The UK is giving £75m ($133m) to help Bangladesh prepare for the impacts of climate change, the government will announce on Wednesday.
The money will go on measures such as protecting houses, schools and farms against flooding, and introducing new crop strains. (more…)
New map shows Medway’s climate change threat.
Today, the World Development Movement has published a shocking new map and data, clearly showing the very real affect that climate change could have in Kent, especially in Medway.
From a press release on the World Development Movement website
It is extremely regrettable and highly possible that global warming, sea level rise and climate change will have little ‘work’ to do in terms of wrecking our coast as we know it and the lives of all who live and work in the coastal zone as we progress through this century. Our Government will already have done that long before we/they know or understand what the real extent the effects of climate change may be.
By assuming the worst and throwing away communities and land around our coast now we are not managing the problem we are abdicating our responsibilities to future generations and binding them into costs they may never have been forced to bear had we been more pragmatic in our approach today.
Read the full article by Malcolm Kerby on the CCAG website
“We must be pragmatic about the forthcoming environmental challenges, which is why Natural England is undertaking groundbreaking research
“Society needs to face up to the stark realities of climate change. We are locked into unavoidable changes for at least the next 50 years; we all know that, not least because all of us have had it drummed into us over the past few years. It’s when the examples start to filter through into people’s lives that reality hits.
“Natural England is leading on groundbreaking research to assess the potential impact that climate change may have on England’s natural environment. Our research in the Norfolk Broads is just the beginning of the journey, as we learn how to help our wildlife adapt to the impact of climate change at a landscape scale.”
Read the full article by Martin Doughty on the Guardian “comment is free” Website
It was the latest in a series of catastrophic floods. Seawater forced its way through sand dunes and spilled miles across the low-lying lands of north-east Norfolk, spoiling farmland and destroying homes. After this flood of 1622, it was proposed that the sea be allowed in for good, as far as the village of Potter Heigham, five miles from the coast. Local people and landowners were horrified. They vowed to defend their livelihoods. Two thousand men were press-ganged into repairing the dunes and repelling “the extordinaire force and rage of the Sea”.
The strategy worked and the waves were turned away from this corner of Norfolk for nearly 400 years. Last month, however, a new plan, closely resembling the retreat first proposed in the 17th century, was leaked to the public. Calling for “the embayment” of 25 square miles of low-lying land, the government’s environmental body, Natural England, said that nine miles of sea defences between the seaside villages of Eccles and Winterton were unsustainable “beyond the next 20-50 years”, creating the possibility of “realigning the coast”. What this cold academic language actually means is wiping part of Norfolk off the map: 600 homes, six villages, five medieval churches, four fresh-water Broadland lakes, historic windmills, precious nature reserves and valuable agricultural land would be given up to the rising seas. Britain would have its first climate change refugees.
Rising seas are changing Britain’s coast dramatically. Norfolk is the first low-lying area to face a stark and cruel new choice - plough millions into doomed defences, or abandon whole villages to the invading waters. Read the full story by Patrick Barkham on the Guardian website
Proposals to surrender 25 sq miles of the broads to the sea, in response to climate change, have provoked a public outcry since they were revealed by the EDP. But where have they come from, why are they being considered, and will they ever become a reality? Jon Welch looks for some answers. (more…)
It’s time we shut down Natural England (NE), the puppet quango set up by the Government. Unfocused and unloved, it replaced the Countryside Agency and English Nature. Sadly, it now packs neither the effective rural punch of the former, nor the international scientific reputation of the latter. Run by a log-time employee of the Environment Agency, NE is the very model of a New Labour quango. Starved of resources, it’s required to do the Government’s bidding while preserving the pretence of independence. (more…)
A big section of the Norfolk Broads as well as a cluster of villages and thousands of acres of farmland face being surrendered to the sea under secret plans to save the rest of the Norfolk coast from the impact of climate change. A scheme drawn up by experts at Natural England, the body born out of the Countryside Agency and English Nature in 2006, envisages that 25 square miles of fen and fields would be wiped off the map for ever in an attempt to realign the coastline.
Read the full story by Countryside Editor on the Times website
Large swathes of Norfolk, including six villages, could be flooded under a controversial plan to deal with the effects of climate change. The proposal would see Britain effectively admit defeat in the battle to maintain coastal defences and around 16,000 acres (25 square miles) of land in the Norfolk Broads would be allowed to flood.
Read the full story by Nick Allen on the Telegraph website
For the best view of the next stage of the climate change debate, you need Mike Page’s help. CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips got a ride in his Cessna plane.
Page has been documenting what’s been happening to his home turf. There’s less and less of it.The soft sand cliffs of certain parts of the coast have always been vulnerable to erosion and the government put in a system of sea defenses about 50 years ago to try to protect it.
For decades, with constant maintenance, it worked. But with rising sea levels and rising costs, about 10 years ago, they gave up. Page’s footage, shot over the past several years, shows what happened.
Read the full story on the CBS News website
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