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 Tim Hirsch reports for BBC News"The battle to hold back the seas costs millions of pounds"  real 28k |
South east faces climate change
 Beachy Head:: Erosion is likely to increase |
By Environment Correspondent Alex Kirby
The richest region in the United Kingdom, the southeast corner of England, "has potentially more to gain, and certainly more to lose" from climate change than anywhere else in the country, a report says.
Commissioned by national and local government agencies, private companies and non-governmental organisations, the report was produced as part of the UK Climate Impacts Programme.
It says a number of changes in the southeast's climate will be evident by the 2080s:
- it will be warmer all year round, with most of the warming in summer and autumn
- winters will be wetter, and summers will be drier
- it will be sunnier in the summer, and this, with the higher temperatures, will mean a large increase in summer evaporation
- it will be windier, with an increased risk of severe storms
- sea level in the English Channel will be 54 centimetres above its present level.
 Exotic new crops may come to England |
There is also likely to be more damage from flooding almost every winter; floodplains may become more dangerous places to live, and coasts and lower river reaches are expected to face a higher frequency of storm surge tides.
Landscapes to change
Erosion is set to increase, not only of prominent landscape features like cliffs, but of less dramatic but still vital places like mudflats and shingle banks as well.
The appearance of the chalklands of the north and South Downs will probably change as plant and tree species migrate into or out of the region.
 Extreme weather will be a bigger problem |
"Tourism and recreation industries could benefit considerably from warmer conditions. It is the perception of the predictability of the weather that will influence visitor destinations and length of stay.
"The south east could have more visitors, an increase in second or holiday home ownership, and return migration as expatriates move to the south east as southern European summers become too hot."
The report's authors say that as well as specific impacts, they identified four general themes that need to be considered: integrated regional planning; raising awareness; monitoring change; and managing uncertainty.
There will be those who will criticise the assumptions about climate change on which the report is based. Not all scientists accept that rapid warming in the next century is inevitable, and even if it is, they argue that the precise effects on the UK are impossible to predict.
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See also: | |
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 | 18 Nov 99 | Sci/Tech |
| Climate change warning |
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| 04 Nov 99 | Sci/Tech |
| Europe's climate forecast is hot |
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| 10 Sep 99 | Sci/Tech |
| Climate disaster possible by 2100 |
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| 18 Oct 99 | Sci/Tech |
| Climate 'next century's biggest challenge' |
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Internet links: | |
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| Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research |
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| UK Climate Impacts Programme |
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