UK: Climate Change Impacts Coasts: British government report

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: NYT/AP

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 15, 2008

LONDON (AP) -- Climate change is warming Britain's waters, eroding its coastline, harming its marine wildlife and increasing the likelihood of devastating storms and floods, the government said in a report published Wednesday. The ''Marine Climate Change Impacts'' report, drawn up by coalition of government bodies and researchers, said 2006 was the warmest year ever recorded for Britain's waters, and seven of the 10 warmest years have been in the last decade.

Milder sea temperatures have already adversely affected plankton -- small water-going micro-organisms that form the foundation of the ocean's ecosystem. In the North Sea, the population of the previously dominant cold-water plankton species Calanus finmarchicus had declined by 70 percent since the 1960s, the report said. Cold-water fish were also suffering, and that in turn was reducing the availability of prey for some of Britain's seabirds -- such as black-legged kittiwakes -- and harming the fish and fish farming industries, the report said.

The ocean around Britain was also becoming more violent and more acidic. Scientists have recorded increasing average wave heights in western and northern British waters, while models suggested that the chemical composition of British sea water had shifted, becoming more acidic as it absorbed increasing amounts of carbon dioxide.

The report also said erosion had taken increasingly deep bites out of the British coast, saying that the low water and high water marks were getting closer in nearly two thirds of the areas studied in England and Wales over the past 100 years. It predicted -- albeit with low confidence -- that the rate of erosion would increase as ocean levels rose.

Finally the report warned of the possibility of increased flood risk, both from rivers and the sea, saying the increasing trend in extreme water levels was most likely a consequence of the rise in average sea level, itself strongly linked to global warming....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Britain-Climate-Change.html

[damntexdem]

1. But it won't affect the coasts for long.

At least not the current coasts -- at least not qua coasts.

[Barrett808]

2. k & r

[Lisa]

3. "If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less ..."

John Donne, British poet.

It looks like there will indeed be a lot of coastlines washed away by the rising waters, around the world. And true to Donne's sentiment, even people living far away from the ocean will be seeing the effects of these changes.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Thanks for that snippet of poetry. Somehow, the poets say it all --

especially in Britain.