It is salutary to witness man withdrawing from an attempt to control nature as the effects of climate change come to bear. The South coast, already affected by Isostatic effects (I had to use that word – means the way that the landmass of Britain is tilting over time with the south going down and the north going up for more see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isostasy#Eustasy_and_relative_sea_level_change ) will have this effect compounded by the effects of sea level rises due to climate change.
At Environment Committee today a review of Coastline policy raised the issue of the Cuckmere Valley which the Environment Agency is advising should no longer be maintained as a ’sea defended valley’ but allowed to return to its more natural state of a salt/ mud estuary. Saving money of around £17m in the process over the next 100 years. For more about local concern over this see http://www.rescuethecuckmerevalley.com/index.htm
This is the first time that climate change effects have impacted on council matters and it is awesome and somewhat scary. ‘Tough conversations’ was the EA man’s words… I am left wondering how many of those we will have to have in my lifetime.
