DEFRA Report - UK Sea Levels Will Rise By Up To 1 Meter Within 75 Years - Times

[hatrack]

BRITAIN’S coasts and oceans are being changed for ever by rising sea levels, bigger waves and stronger storms, a government report will warn this week. The study, the most thorough yet carried out into the impact of climate change on the country’s marine environment, warns that sea levels could rise by as much as 2ft-3ft by 2080 and that the height of the biggest waves hitting our shores is already rising.

Such factors, combined with the likelihood of more and bigger storms, will, says the study, dramatically alter Britain’s shores, affecting the wildlife and people that live around them. “This is a shocking report,” said Ben Bradshaw, the junior environment minister who oversees marine issues. “Climate change is impacting on our oceans far faster and more strongly than was ever expected.”

The study, Marine Climate Change Impacts, to be published this week by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, draws together the latest research from some of Britain’s leading marine and climate research centres. The research comes as this autumn is poised to be the warmest since 1731, with average temperatures above 11.8C (53F).

The most obvious impact will be from rising sea levels. A report from the Hadley Centre, the Met Office’s climate research facility, warns that sea levels could rise by up to 2ft 6in around southern England by 2080. Even Scotland, where rising sea levels are mitigated by the fact that the country is rising slightly from the earth’s crust, will experience an increase of up to 2ft, says the report.

EDIT

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2472154,00.html

[stepnw1f]

1. 1 Meter = 3.2808399 feet

for those who don't know. Just had to check myself.

[Javaman]

2. And how much coastal land will be lost?

1 meter is pretty damn high. Does this mean London will be the new Venice? And Venice the new waterworld?

[eppur_se_muova]

3. No spot in the British Isles is more than 26 miles from the sea, IIRC.

I wonder how much that number will change ...

[Nihil]

5. Actually it's 70 miles but your point remains valid.

The Ordnance Survey has calculated that the furthest point from the sea
in all of the UK is:
Latitude: 52º 43.6'N
Longitude: 1º 37.2'W
(Close to the village of Coton in the Elms in Derbyshire)

As you say, this value *will* decrease.

Check out the maps at the following link for guides to the effects
of 7m, 13m and 84m sea-level rises on the shape of the UK:

http://www.benfieldhrc.org/climate_change/sea_level_rise/sea_level_rise.htm

[phantom power]

4. I note with interest...

that the "UK sea" is, in fact, connected to all the other oceans. If it rises a meter there, that's pretty much a meter rise everywhere, to within a few centimeters, yes?