Britain 'will be tropical by 2100'

 

Roastingly hot summers, monsoon-style winter rains and flooding, plus the destruction of much of the nation’s ecosystems and wildlife will make “our green and pleasant land” almost unrecognisable by 2100, Britain’s biggest weather prediction experiment suggests.

Sir David Attenborough will present the near-apocalyptic vision of Britain’s future in a BBC documentary, Climate Change: Britain Under Threat, to be screened next Sunday on BBC1.

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The experiment began a year ago when a documentary invited viewers to use their computers to run climate prediction models. More than 54,000 responded around the the world and together they became part of the largest climate prediction project ever undertaken.

The experiment is still running and would-be participants can join it at www.climateprediction.net.

The data generated was sent to Oxford University to be analysed and the result is the most detailed picture yet produced of Britain’s likely future climate.

Attenborough and co-presenter Kate Humble will reveal projected snapshots of Britain in 2020, 2050 and 2080. The overriding factor is a dramatic surge in average temperatures. By 2050 this will have risen by 2.5C.

By 2080 it will have risen by 4C. Attenborough will explain that such rises may seem small but are almost as great as the rise that lifted Britain out of the ice age of 12,000 years ago and made it temperate.

One consequence, according to a scientist featured in the programme, is that the typical Victorian terrace or semi will become intolerably hot in summer.

The warming will give Britain a climate ranging from semi-tropical in the south to Mediterranean in Scotland, accompanied by long droughts in summer and intense winter rainfall.

There may also be an increase in storm surges, when a combination of strong winds, tides and atmospheric conditions sharply raise sea levels.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2546325.html