There are at least 1,215 historic coastal landfill sites in England, mostly clustered around estuaries with major cities, including Liverpool, London, and Newcastle on Tyne. Coastal erosion may release waste from ten per cent of England's historic coastal landfills in the next forty years, according to research from Queen Mary University of London and the Environment Agency. Professor Spencer led the Environment Agency funded project into historic landfills at QMUL. Climate change effects, e.g. sea level rise and more intensive storms, are likely to increase the number of historic coastal landfills that erode."sea level rise and more intensive storms, are likely to increase the number of historic coastal landfills that erode." Historically it was common practise to dispose of landfill waste in low-lying estuarine and coastal areas where land had limited value due to the risk of it flooding. The researchers show that more than one-third of England's historic coastal landfills are in close proximity to designated environmental sites, and half of them are in or near to areas influencing bathing water quality. Kate Spencer, Professor of Environmental Geochemistry at QMUL, added: "Unfortunately, there are a lot of unknowns here. Some historic coastal landfills, such as the East Tilbury landfill in the Thames Estuary, have already started to erode.
Coastal erosion is happening at a rate faster than we can process. Louisiana's famous marshlands lose 8 inches of land annually due to the erosion of it's coast., and Texas has lost hundreds of miles of beach. In fact, our very own Monterey Bay is facing coastal erosion, and the threat could cost property value losses in the billions of dollars. There are multiple ways to try and stop it, but most are ineffective, and cause more problems, like walls that collect sand, but take it from other beaches. The beaches that we love to enjoy now may not be here in 50 years...or even 25 at the rate that the sea is rising. I can only think that, because the ice is melting, the temperature should make the ice melt faster...so the rate of the rising sea is bound to increase. I loathe day that the beaches that I grew up on will be inaccessible to my children...and it is all due to greed and human pollution.
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