'The olde sea wall (he cried) is downe,England has always been a nation protected by the sea. It was violent storms on the North Sea that shattered the mighty Spanish Armada. Even the narrow moat that is the English Channel was sufficient barrier to keep Nazi Panzers from invading. That loving embrace is becoming a death grip that the English are helpless to defend against.
The rising tide comes on apace,
And boats adrift in yonder towne
Go sailing uppe the market-place.' ~ Jean Ingelow, The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire
Quietly, the English government has decided to abandon large swaths of England to the oceans. According to the British newspaper the Telegraph, the storms that brought the threat of massive flooding to North Sea communities is only the beginning. Within 30 years, they predict, communities in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Kent, and Somerset will have to be surrendered to the rising sea because it will be too expensive to protect them. The effects of global warming will become all too apparent within my lifetime.
The rising sea will reclaim our groundHat tip to Jamess at Daily Kos for leading me to this story.
Nothing but water will abound
Our people forced to leave for higher ground.
~ Jane Resture, Our People on the Reef, a poem about the south Pacific atolls that will disappear in the coming decades.
1 comment:
OK, the tone of the article was to claim the coastal dwellers were being bieng shortchanged (not be given a penny for defenses).
I read your post which seemed to conclude that we will see drastic effects without implying that the government should spent big bucks for "defenses".
Me, I'm reminded of a story about the man who built his house on the sand (and it was washed away). And I'm proud of the farm towns along the upper Mississippi that moved structures up and away. leave the fields and meadows on the flood plain and move the hospitals and schools.
The tiny villages here in Alaska are being affected now!
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