About Extinction Rebellion

Cottenham lies on the Fen Edge, which was not only the landward end of marshes extending to the North Sea in the Middle Ages, but also how far the North Sea might come if sea levels rise!

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Modelling potential sea level rise in East Anglia from Ordnance Survey and Wikipedia show: “experts now estimate there is a 5 percent chance 21st century sea-level rise will exceed 2 m.” Quantifying this arrived at this arresting map of future flooding scenarios for Cambridge and the villages immediately north of it, which is where we are:

• mid-century consensus and models put sea level rise at 0.5 m. and temperature anomalies below 3°C in a moderate emissions scenario, while end-century estimates are 2 m. above 3°C in a ‘far tail’ scenario, and a century later is 6m. and below 9°C in an extreme scenario.

• separate calculations point to an almost doubling in land submergence from sea level rise, in other words a fifth to a half of the land would become un-arable in East Anglia at the end of this and of the next century.

• the impact on population is also dramatic at almost half the population and a third of the settlements would be affected