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Government effort has so far focused almost exclusively on reduction of Global Warming inputs (mainly CO2 reduction). While laudable, this simply is not enough.
One salutary graph in the government paper on response to global worming shows that, even if all inputs were stopped tomorrow, the signature of global warming would be detectable 600 years from now. The process has started, and significant change is now inevitable.
Why then has government not paid more attention to adaptation to the change? When I put this question to Dame Barbara Young, Chief Executive of the Environment Agency at a conference, her first response was to agree that more needed to be done with regard to adaptation. However, she pointed out that if government started to publicly canvass adaptation strategies, the NGOs would accuse government of copping out, giving in to the US, abandoning efforts to reduce inputs.
The present situation is unsatisfactory in the extreme, and unless changed could cause serious damage to the Solent.
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