'Tearing this nation apart': Coastal erosion tears away homes in eastern England

euronews (in English)

Coastal communities across the UK and Europe face an uncertain future, as climate change speeds up erosion. In England, the region of East Anglia is already suffering the consequences.

Transcript

00:00 Along the east coast of England, people's homes are disappearing.

00:04 The relentless force of the sea causing rapid coastal erosion

00:08 at an accelerating and alarming pace.

00:11 It was like two or three roads.

00:13 You'd have to go up and down the dunes two or three times

00:16 to actually get to the sea from here, and there's that amount that's gone.

00:21 And now we're just a few metres away. Yeah.

00:24 An increase in storm surges,

00:26 intensified by increasingly erratic weather patterns,

00:30 are devastating the sandy cliffs along this coastal stretch.

00:34 Metres of land recently plunged over the edge.

00:37 The local council now poised to dismantle the newly abandoned homes

00:42 closest to the cliffside of this sea-battered village.

00:46 This is somebody's driveway, and until very recently,

00:49 it led to a road that connected to homes along this beachfront.

00:54 But now that road is on the beach.

00:56 These homes are just metres away from the same fate.

01:00 Local people say coastal erosion is speeding up rapidly.

01:04 It is climate change itself.

01:06 That's what's going to tear not only this nation apart, but many others.

01:11 And those that are able to survive it

01:14 will be those that have organised for it now.

01:17 Experts are warning local governments and nations

01:21 must brace for the challenges ahead.

01:23 Over time, those storms will be more extreme,

01:26 in line with the changes that we expect with climate change.

01:29 So we need to be prepared for that,

01:31 and we need to understand how to prepare communities in the long run

01:36 to be able to be resilient and withstand those kind of events.

01:40 Coastal communities across Europe face an uncertain future

01:45 as climate change speeds up erosion.

01:48 Luke Hanrahan, Euronews, Norfolk.

01:51 (whooshing)

01:53 (whooshing)

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