photo by Fred Dawson (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

Only in Britain?

In what may be one of the biggest wildlife relocation projects ever, some 300 water voles; 350 great crested newts and 30,000 smooth newts, along with thousands of snakes and lizards, are being moved to facilitate the construction of a deep-sea container port on the Thames River on the eastern outskirts of London. The port project, named London Gateway, is the first of its kind in the UK and is owned by the company DP World. In total, over 150,000 wild animals are to be relocated for the river port project.

From an article in the Independent:

It took almost eight months and more than 500 traps to capture the hundreds of water voles on the DP Gateway site. They were caught as they stepped into the tunnelled boxes looking for food and bedding. They were then held in the traps until released by an ecologist on the site.

Water voles, an important source of food for many larger animals, are endangered in Britain – their numbers have already been reduced by 90% during the past 30 years. Their fate is blamed on the North American mink, an invasive species.

Meanwhile, the Thames is also the site of the first large-scale desalinization plant for drinking water in the UK.

Despite southeast England’s wet weather, the region experiences less rainfall per person than the dry metropolises of Istanbul, Dallas or Sydney. Climate change, which increases the likelihood of dry summers, could strain water supplies in London.

From a report in the Guardian:

Thames Water has spent £250m building the plant and pipes, and has said that the equipment will only be turned on at times of drought, when it can supply up to 1 million people.

Opponents of the plant claim that it will use too much energy and that water saving measures are a better option. Thames Water has countered this by stating that the plant will be fully powered by biofuel.

It has been speculated that the plant could someday be connected to a nearby sewage plant to create recycled water, which could be a hard sell to consumers.

‘This water tastes familiar. I think I already drank this last week!’

by Graham Land

photo by Sarah Charlesworth (source: geograph.org.uk)

Climate change, by its very definition, suggests that geographical areas become hotter or drier or wetter as the case may be. Some places even become colder, while others experience severe fluctuations in weather, such as an increase in storms or droughts.

Anthropogenic climate change – climate change caused by human activity – is predicted to affect weather conditions throughout the globe, the most vulnerable being hot countries that already experience extreme weather. According to the World Bank’s list of the 12 countries most at risk from climate change, Bangladesh is most susceptible to floods, Malawi to droughts and the Philippines to storms. Low lying island states, followed by Vietnam, are threatened most by rising sea levels.

But what about the UK with its wet, mild northern climate? Sure, Britain is an island, but it’s a big one and weather in the UK is never as extreme as in the aforementioned places. Plus, Britain is wealthy and it’s got infrastructure like the impressive Thames Barrier to prevent floods.

But infrastructure, whether in Manila, London or São Paulo, is designed for the present climate of each respective location, not for future climates. This is why flood engineers in the UK are looking to tropical countries for ways to deal with ‘surface flooding’.

And it may sound strange, but besides flooding, a study by the Met Office deals with how more ‘extreme droughts’ could hit the UK due to climate change.

From an article in the Independent:

The Met Office climate model was used to run a number of simulations and in the worst case scenarios, extreme droughts could happen once every decade – making them about 10 times more frequent than today.

According to Environment Agency data, 2010 has gotten off to a dry start for England and Wales.

From a Guardian report:

The situation is remarkable because the last three summers have been exceptionally wet, leading to a rise in water tables and an increase in the flow of some groundwater-fed rivers. Towns like Cockermouth, which last year experienced some of the worst floods in a century, are now witnessing near record-low river levels.

A drought, combined with increased water demand, is bad news for local ecosystems. An increasing human population and future climate change will only exacerbate such stresses.

What exactly climate change will bring to the UK is impossible to predict with 100% accuracy, but risk and worst case scenarios demand planning, political action and honesty in the face of looming threats, whether in the form of flooding or drought.

By Graham Land

Additional resources:

Manchester Evening News – After the wet weekend, now a drought warning