Climate change means more floods for a drying Thames basin

World Wildlife Fund: A drying Thames river basin in the UK would still face five times the current risk of flooding by 2080, a recent assessment of the effects of climate change has found. The Thames Vulnerability Assessment Report prepared by WWF-UK also found dire results for fish and wildlife, the lawns and flowerbeds of the traditional English garden and London’s antiquated sewers and drains.

The 14 million people in the internationally important basin – and the additional two million expected to join them by 2026 – also face a future of water shortages. “Climate change is likely to result in hotter, drier summers and warmer, wetter winters. Perversely, this means we will suffer from having both more water, and less, with greater risk from flooding and drought,” said WWF-UK freshwater policy advisor, Dr Tom Le Quesne….

The Thames River as seen from Westminster Bridge in London, October 2006, by Ville Miettinen from Helsinki, Finland, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License