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.
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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.
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