Is London ready to deal with climate change?
May 14, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Scene from Flood, a 2007 British film, based on a novel by Richard Doyle.
Do not panic, it is not a real picture! It is an image from a film called ‘Flood’. Unfortunately every day humankind moves ever closer to the effects of climate change spectacularly demonstrated in disasters films such as the one mentioned above or ‘The day after tomorrow’.
London has many reasons to be worried about the effects of climate change. Firstly, it is vulnerable to flooding from the North Sea, the Thames River and heavy rainfall. According to the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy published by the Mayor of London, peak river levels of the Thames and its tributaries are projected to rise by nearly a third in less than a decade. That means putting more than 1 million people at risk! While the city does cope with a system of flood walls, gates and drains to protect it from flooding, it seems that it may not be enough to hold off the rising waters.
Secondly, London is vulnerable to hot weather events like droughts and heatwaves. Even if it sounds ironic as London is considered at risk of heavy rainfall, it is also considered, to be one of the driest capital in the world. London is the driest region of UK and actually has less water person than other hotter countries. Again, according to the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy by the year 2050, average temperatures during the summer will be as hot as the temperatures felt in the 2003 heatwave, which killed around 2,000 people in UK.
An example of hot weather event in London. Bernie Spain Gardens in May 2011
So, do not stay obliviously at home thinking that climate change will not affect you because you live in the ‘first world’, climate change affects everyone. Join the bloomtrigger project and become a part of the solution!
