Government assessment warns of flooding, heatwaves and water shortages

The first comprehensive government assessment of climate change in the UK has revealed that flooding, heatwaves and water shortages could become more likely in the future, it has been reported by the BBC.

The document, produced for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), show that hotter summers could lead to between 580-5900 deaths above the average per year by the 2050s. However, ambiguities in the study are likely to have occurred owing to the unforeseeable future of many data sets.

Other negative impacts include water shortages in the north, south and east of England, with the Thames Valley expected to be the most severely hit. Flood damage could cost between £2.1 billion-£12 billion by the 2080s.
There were positives to the report as well. Economically, the melting of Arctic sea ice opening shorter shipping routes to Asia. Wheat yields could also increase by 40 to 140 per cent and sugar beet yields by 20 to 70 per cent by the 2050s.

Environment secretary Caroline Spelman said of the report: "It shows what life could be like if we stopped our preparations now, and the consequences such a decision would mean for our economic stability."

There has been an accumulating amount of evidence that suggests the planet is warming up. Four out of five of the warmest years ever recorded were in the 1990s, which contributed to making the same decade the warmest of the last millennium. Arctic ice thinning and an increase in heavy rainfalls are also indicators.

Posted by Joseph Hutton