the sky is falling! :)
Posted on 01/15/2008 10:31:52 PM PST by NormsRevenge
LONDON - Climate change is warming Britain's waters, eroding its coastline, harming its marine wildlife and increasing the likelihood of devastating storms and floods, the government said in a report published Wednesday.
The "Marine Climate Change Impacts" report, drawn up by coalition of government bodies and researchers, said 2006 was the warmest year ever recorded for Britain's waters, and seven of the 10 warmest years have been in the last decade.
Milder sea temperatures have already adversely affected plankton — small water-going micro-organisms that form the foundation of the ocean's ecosystem. In the North Sea, the population of the previously dominant cold-water plankton species Calanus finmarchicus had declined by 70 percent since the 1960s, the report said.
Cold-water fish were also suffering, and that in turn was reducing the availability of prey for some of Britain's seabirds — such as black-legged kittiwakes — and harming the fish and fish farming industries, the report said.
The ocean around Britain was also becoming more violent and more acidic. Scientists have recorded increasing average wave heights in western and northern British waters, while models suggested that the chemical composition of British sea water had shifted, becoming more acidic as it absorbed increasing amounts of carbon dioxide.
The report also said erosion had taken increasingly deep bites out of the British coast, saying that the low water and high water marks were getting closer in nearly two thirds of the areas studied in England and Wales over the past 100 years. It predicted — albeit with low confidence — that the rate of erosion would increase as ocean levels rose.
Finally the report warned of the possibility of increased flood risk, both from rivers and the sea, saying the increasing trend in extreme water levels was most likely a consequence of the rise in average sea level, itself strongly linked to global warming.
Those behind the report said it should be read as a call 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."
Proof that their government lies too! Damn fools deserve what ever befalls them for buying into this load of crap.
I thought their big problem was that the Gulf Stream was going to stop and they were going to freeze to death. Maybe that was last week!
In Roman times I believe they grew grapes in Britain, something that has not been possible for a very long time.
Now they just spew sour grapes.
It seems that the envirowhackos wish for the ‘good old days’ when Britain was covered with a mile thick sheet of ice. No problems with storms or plankton then.
The west coast of Scotland is so warmed by the Gulf stream that palm trees grow on the Islands. This is about 55 degrees latitude, about the same latitude as the lower area of the Hudson Bay in Canada.
Those palm trees didn’t get there by themselves, of course. Somebody introduced them.
Perhaps a swallow dropped a coconut.
I see no reason why the climate should stop changing now.
Legislative changes threaten our very society and the bureaucrats are quite pleased with themselves.
Would that be an African or European swallow?
Is there really anyone here that needed an explanations as to what “plankton” is?
Would that be an AFRICAN swallow, or two european ones?
Erm...a trifle out of date! There's been a flourishing English wine industry since the 1950s, and very good stuff it is too (especially the methode champenoise whites). See
http://www.englishwineproducers.com
Are you implying that coconuts migrate?
Not too clear where the lie is in this case? The specific local phenomena listed are all well observed and measured. The report is largely about changes which have already occurred, rather than dubious prediction.
There are palm trees in Kensington Garden in London, too. I don’t think that type of palm tree requires a very temperate climate. They trees have been there for a long time, well before global warming.
There are a lot of vinyards in Britain, and some of them produce red grapes.
UK viniculture went to nothing during the maunder minimum, but it has slowly increased with the (non-anthopogenic) rise in temperatures from 1600 to 2000.
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