I’m trying to get masel a place to live, to happily pass away my next decade or two in.
I’m likely get a 25-year mortgage.
The issue is, loads of the places I’d like to live might no be here in 25 years.
SEPA, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, has published guidance about the massive increased flood risks, rainfall changes, and other general catastrophes coming doon the track due to global warming.
I fancied a wee cottage to the north of Carnoustie. Somewhere on a beach.
One place I saw was going for about eighty grand and had a wee garden and a kitchen that would have been ideal for me microwaving my bachelor meals in.
Sadly, according to International Panel for Climate Change predictions, the salt seas will be lapping against its walls on the regular by 2040.
Sea levels have already risen 17 centimetres, which is loads.
And in the last decade alone, rainfall in Scotland has increased 9%.
Like we needed any mair o’ that.
What if my wee dream cottage ends up sat like a lighthouse with the waves crashing against it in less than 20 years?
My mortgage wouldnae be even near paid off by then.
So, I’ll no be buying a seaside place, bonnie though the east coast is.
Because trouble is coming.
Climate change is putting other parts of Tayside out of reach
Inland, too isnae easy.
The Dighty Burn that flows fae out the Sidlaws, skirts the city of Dundee and heads for the sea by Barnhill, is another risk.
The attractive wee village of Bridgefoot was a regular haunt of mine during lockdown.
But its location by the burn feels ill-fated now.
This is nearly as high as i remember seeing the Dighty. This 'burn' is normally about 12ft across & a couple of feet deep (if that). Not good that there is lots more rain/snow forecast over the next few days. #flood #flooding #Dundee #StormHour #WeatherWatchers #phonepic #Samsung pic.twitter.com/WMioTzeQUa
— Kris Miller (@Kris_Miller_) February 5, 2021
“Increases in rainfall intensity due to climate change are likely to result in an increase in the severity and frequency of flooding incidents on small watercourses,” the SEPA report says.
Last week’s on-ding in Perth that turned Queen Street into a grade 3 kayaking course is another example of what we are now expecting.
Perth is a particularly vulnerable city.
The cool old King’s Lade – a long moat dug around the town in the mediaeval period for defence, then used for powering industry – is now ever ready to flood, or pour water into flooding areas.
SEPA identifies it as a constant and high flood risk.
Climate change has turned this defensive ring into a noose about the city.
This is one of the reasons I’m keen to buy a flat and move to Stobswell, in Dundee city centre.
Stobswell cant’s accommodate us all
Stobie is pretty high up, so sea level rises wilnae bother it.
It’s on a brae, which isnae ideal because of the increasing landslips we’ll see as rainfall increases. But it’s no too steep.
And the buildings are pretty auld, so arnae great at keeping cool in the newly hot summer months, but I’ll have to thole that.
There’s some decent green space around, which will soak up some of the sun’s heat and give some shade.
And all being well, the building I move into should still be there when I pay off the mortgage, aged 57, in the year 2047.
The same cannae be said for much of the Angus coast, nor for the Carse of Gowrie, nor for central Perth.
What Stobie cannae do, though, is house aabdy.
Where will people go when the places we live now are being flooded?
I don’t know the answer to that.
No one does yet.
Climate change is with us now in Tayside, and it is part of our imagination and our views for the future.
What we do and how we cope though – that remains unclear.
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