Britain Being Torn Apart by Climate Change
As islands go, it isn’t really all that big. That doesn’t bode well apparently for Britain, which is - according to new research published by a coalition of government bodies - being continually ravaged by the effects of climate change from coast to coast.
The British government published a report on Wednesday which announced climate change was affecting surrounding waters, negatively affecting its marine wildlife, causing an increased likelihood of storms and floods, and eroding its coastline.
Named the “Marine Climate Change Impacts” report, it declared 2006 as the second-warmest for Britain’s waters, and that seven of the last ten warmest years had been in the last decade.
The 2007-08 annual report card released by the MCCIP ‘builds upon the evidence base presented in 2006, highlighting key developments and exploring new subject areas (coastal erosion, coastal habitats and air–sea exchanges of heat and water). It brings together scientific understanding from a wider range of research institutes, providing an even more comprehensive assessment of UK marine climate change impacts and highlighting regional variations where possible.’
According to the report, ‘marine air and sea surface temperatures (SST) have been rising at a similar rate to land air temperature… Since the 1980’s the rate of rise has been about 0.2–0.6 ºC per decade. The report predicts with high confidence that the SST will continue to rise in all waters around the UK coast.
Storms and waves are another problem for an island environment, and severe winds and larger mean (mean, as in average, not nasty) waves heights are being witnessed in western and northern UK waters. And though their predictions for the future are made with low confidence, they state that there will be an increase in intense storms and wave heights.
A prediction they have made with medium confidence refers to the acidification of the oceans. The report shows that the ocean is becoming more acidic as it digests more carbon dioxide. As a result, they believe that any continued acidification – which we will be hard pressed to stop considering its source – will continue to reduce the amount the oceans are able to take up.
High confidence (they measured the report in terms of low, medium and high levels of confidence) was shown in the fact that coast erosion is occurring along 17% of the UK coastline. The report does not see this trend slowing.
I won’t continue to summarise the entire report, which can be found here (pdf), but the report goes on to list threats to plankton (vital to the ocean ecosystem), fish, marine mammals and seabirds. Coastal flooding, algal blooms and pollution also receive a look in the report, although with much less confidence than other aspects.
The authors of the report hope that this will call people to people to action. “Our winters are getting wetter and warmer, sea levels are rising and coastal erosion is increasing,” Rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead said. “These are happening now and we must take action.”
MCCIP - Marine climate change impacts
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