Thursday, 26 January 2012

Hard facts about climate change on our doorstep

If we needed a warning about the threat of climate change on our doorsteps,look no further than the first national assessment of the risks of climate change which has been published today.

 It says that the costs to the UK of flooding could rise to billions of pounds a year in the coming decades and the country will also face threats including water shortages, more droughts and diseases such as red band needle blight which could hit the timber industry in the next century.

It is not all doom and gloom as the report says that we could benefit including the chance to grow new crops and even the possibility of more tourism as temperatures get milder.

However with the rising temperatures will come 5,900 more people dying as a result of hot summers, but thousands of cold-related deaths are likely to be avoided in winter by the 2050s.

The report was conducted under the country's climate act as a legal requirement and has been produced by DEFRA

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