![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
You are in: Programmes: Panorama: Archive | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() Underwater Britain November 19 2000
Underwater Britain
Sunday November 19 2000 Reporter Vivian White Producers Tom Giles, David Akerman and Aidan Laverty ![]() ![]() Vivian White put your questions to Merylyn Mckenzie-Hedger of the UK Climate Impact programme and Geoff Jenkins of the Hadley Centre in a live webcast. Click on the link below to listen to coverage of the forum. The country may be getting back to normal after the floods, but the evidence is that there could be plenty more in store. Panorama investigates whether the last three weeks could just be a taster as the UK's climate changes. Helen Young, Met Office forecaster at the BBC Weather Centre, says: "I think in 30 years' time, if I'm still here presenting the weather, I will be looking at something quite different to what we're dealing with now." Scroll down for related links It is predicted temperatures will continue to rise between one and possibly three degrees over the next 50 years. As temperatures rise, we will get drier summers, even droughts, but wetter winters. John Prescott tells Vivian White that the country needs to face up to climate change. He says "Government should make sure we're doing everything to prevent (flood damage), my wake-up call is to say to people, these are going to be more frequent, we should do more about it." Read more on Climate Change in News Online's Special Report
Martin Parry, Professor at the Jackson Environment Institute in East Anglia, says: "It may be the result of simply extreme weather but it is the sort of event that we would expect to occur more in the future as a result of global warming." 'We thought we were protected' The residents of the village of Mersham in Kent thought they were protected from the risk of flooding. A flood defence system at Aldington, just upstream on the River Stour, was completed 10 years ago to protect the communities below from repeated floods.
Existing flood defences around the country may be inadequate, which could be a potentially expensive issue for the government. Climate change is shifting the statistics that design guidelines are based on. Visit ISL for more information on flood analysis in the UK
Mark Dixon from the Environment Agency is responsible for planning East Anglia's future flood defences from the Thames to the Wash. He has already adapted his own Essex home, ready for the worst. Instead of building up the sea wall and defending the land behind against rising sea levels, official Government policy now is to allow agricultural land to be flooded and to return to salt marsh. 'Hard realities' It is called "managed retreat" and it means effectively re-drawing the map. For farmers like Guy Smith this seems like a policy for defeat, which he fears, might make ultimately it impossible for him to continue working his family farm.
Instead of following policies to adapt to climate change we are still doing things which can actually make the damage that extreme weather and climate change can cause even worse. At Tonbridge in Kent, new houses are now being built on a flood plain. The Environment Agency objected to the development but the local authority went ahead. Kate Trenham, Development Control Officer for the Environment Agency, says: "We did advise the local planning authority against it. "We don't know what other issues they had to consider - but obviously when it came down to the flood plain, we were very much against it and we were very disappointed that this development took place."
Flood protection is not the only problem residents will face. Derek Binns owns the Lowther pub in York, which was damaged in the floods. 'My policy's dead and gone' His insurers have told him his contents are covered this time, but will not be next time. Mr Binns tells Panorama: "They will not honour the policy after this time, that is it. It runs until June, but they've said this is it...my policy's cancelled and dead and gone." The insurance industry knows all about places at risk. They have maps of flood risk areas on computer, and now they are updating them.
The floods have been a shock to the nation. Millions of pounds of damage have been caused, but the scientists say this has just been a warning. Ms Mckenzie-Hedger says: "What we've seen in the last fortnight should be the wakeup call. "This is entirely consistent with what we know climate change will bring, and what it's going to mean is it's going to affect everyone's lives in all sorts of different ways, and everyone has got to start thinking about this very important issue now." Related links BBC Watchdog - Housing/Insurance and Floods The UK Climate Impacts Programme
|
![]() |
Top Archive stories now:
![]() ![]() Links to more Archive stories are at the foot of the page.
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Links to more Archive stories |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To BBC Sport>> | To BBC Weather>> | To BBC World Service>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII | News Sources | Privacy |