FORMBY
23 October 2019
Vol 26 Issue 43
CELEBRATING
25 YEARS
www.champnews.com
Fundraising Squirrels at the double!
Lights show to mark Borough of Culture year
INSIDE THIS WEEK:
LIVING ON AN ISLAND! Huge swathes of our coast could become cut off from mainland Britain by rising sea levels, warn climate change experts
Report by Danielle Thompson
Ada Dowd with the whopper of a pumpkin
Pumpkin surprise for Ada A TODDLER from Freshfield was delighted when her grandad grew her a prize-sized pumpkin in time for Halloween! One-year-old Ada Dowd, from Argarmeols Grove, got a huge surprise when Terry Kavanagh showed her the pumpkin at his allotment in Altcar Road.
Ada was just about able to squeeze in grandad’s wheelbarrow and go for a short ride. Terry said: “Ada visited the site with her mum and dad and nana Ann to pick up the pumpkin which is bigger than her!” Her dad is going to carve a scary face in it this week for Halloween!”
CLIMATE change scientists have predicted huge swathes of Southport and Formby could become an island ‘completely cut off from mainline Britain’ by rising sea levels which could flood Sefton’s coastline before the end of the century. The startling claims were made on the BBC regional programme Inside Out: North West, which was aired on Monday. Presenter Judy Hobson visited the area, including Southport Pier, the coastline and a vegetable farmer’s land on the Hesketh Marshes, to discuss how long-term climate change could effect Sefton’s coastline. She looked into two major reports, one by Climate Central and one by the Environment Agency. The EA report shows that up to 1.5million properties across the North West are at risk of flooding from rising sea levels, which would seriously affect food production across the region, in particular West Lancashire – double the flooding risk from five years ago. Over the past decade, the North West has had 17 record-breaking rainfall months – and the 10 warmest years on record for the region have all been since 2002. Viewers were told that for areas like South-
Sefton’s coastline could become annexed, say climate change scientists
The Climate Control map shows which areas will become annexed
port, the consequences of global warming could be huge. The reports show the threat of flooding. Sea levels are predicted to rise by more than a
metre by the end of the century and should that happen, part of Southport could become an island, completely cut off from mainland Britain. Climate Central, a group of American scientists, created a map using satellite data collected by NASA. This map shows which parts could be underwater, alarmingly in just a few decades. It paints a bleak picture but, they say, ‘the map severely underestimates the dangers’. Benjamin Strauss from Climate Central said: “A satellite can’t tell the difference between a rooftop and the ground, basically. In places that are densely developed, we get an average elevation that is too high and we look safer than we really are.
THE UK’S LARGEST LETTERBOX CIRCULATION BY AN INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER! 164,579
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