So we\’re told that rising sea levels (and in the SE of England, the ongoing sinking of the land) are going to lead to losses of land. Of farmland, of buildings, of the very ability of the species to survive (TM Al Gore). So what should we do about it?
In the most ambitious and expensive project of its type, the RSPB intends to puncture sea defences around Wallasea island, near Southend, and turn 728 hectares (1,800 acres) of farmland into a mosaic of saltmarsh, creeks and mudflats – making mainland Britain just a little bit smaller.
Er, breach the sea walls and invite that rising sea in.
Excellent, don\’t you think?
These marshes will act like sponges absorbing surge tides which is more effective defense than walls. (And more attractive.)
What Kit says, and, by flooding 728 acres, it reduces worldwide sea levels by 0.000000001 of an inch, of course.
Just imagine some council had earmarked 728 acres for building around 10,000 homes, there’d be an outcry. I love seabirds and marshlands as much as the next guy, but hey, maybe we do love animals more than our fellow citizens.
Is that what they’ve been doing in Holland all these years?
Bugger. Not 728 acres, 728 hectares.
So enough land for 25,000 new homes (obviously not precisely that bit of land).
Maybe somebody can straighten out an ignorant Alabama boy.
My read is that a private group has an option to buy farm land and if they can raise the money, buy it and turn back into marsh and tidelands.
Doesn’t a free market permit this?
As a former coast dweller, tidelands are prettier than rows of tract housing and need less repair than seawalls and pumps.
You’re entirely wrong to mock this excellent scheme. The reserve will generate much more income from visitors as a nature reserve than it would as just another stretch of mediocre farm land and, has been pointed out, salt marshes make perfect tidal defences. To say that it would have been better to build houses on the land is just silly. The recreation of habitat has been a great success in recent years and has shown what can be done by managing land as intensively for nature as it had been for agriculture. Far more people are members of the RSPB than either the Conservative or Labour parties and projects like this are overwhelmingly popular with the general public.