by P Henry. 8Feb26
Torcross, a small, picturesque village in south Devon of about 265 people and 20 houses (https://www.streetcheck.co.uk/postcode/tq72tg) is being eroded into the sea. After three fierce storms this year its main access road is partially destroyed, severing its contact with villages north of it and Dartmouth Town.
Waves smashed down doors and windows here and in other affected areas. Houses nearby are shaking on the soil undermined by the sea, roofs falling in.
Interviews with very distraught residents, speaking of their need to remain, would have the road rebuilt knowing that it may last only a few years until another devastation. Pub owners want them all to know their bars are still open. Individuals understandably get lost in the immediate. But it’s not only an individual’s problem, true an immediate threat, but it’s part of an undealt with growing tragedy.
Magical thinking about great saviour politicians, industrialists, or some new rescuer technology won’t happen and can’t quickly change the increase in storms. These powerful humans can be forced into paying bills for rehousing caused by their negligence.
This small village is very significant in both crisis of its people and what it represents to the nation and the world.
Plymouth University Prof Gerd Masselink, said (How winter storms are reshaping the Devon and Cornwall coastline – BBC News) that due to climate change these storms will become more common. He suggests we must start retreating from these coastlines. He is saying, different than magical thinking, we must do something practical. But the millions that will be affected in the next decade can’t all retreat or fill their plates from increasingly devastated crops.
In England alone 80,000 homes, 21 villages are expected to be damaged by climate change this century. A small village on Norfolk coast lost 24 houses in recent years, although surveyors predicted they had 150 years of safety. Rising sea levels have put 200,000 at risk, notably in Devon, Kent and Suffolk (Living on the edge: Coastal home owners being treated like outcasts | This is Money).
Climate Change scientists have predicted this and worse … loss of biodiversity, famine, floods, fires, deaths, (‘Hopeless and broken’: why the world’s top climate scientists are in despair | Climate crisis | The Guardian) and have been describing these problems for over twenty years. Ignored or displaced, their important facts produced mainly hot air between politicians, industrialists and many citizens.
These home destruction statistics need to be clarified, simplified, and brought to the top of the news. Enough of gossiping about Mandelson (tells us directly if he was a spy) and more crazy baiting stories. It is our homes and lives that are at risk! You are wasting our time.
Should we be fooled by their smoke and mirrors? They use the media to increase consumption of useless trinkets, to distract us with both Mountbatten-Windsor’s farces, or other sexed-up scandals and the daily increasing trivia about America to acclimatise us to USA control. What about the real dangers happening here and now?
It is a shared problem we all need to be active in, before it smashes through the front door.
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