Six alarming things which could happen in Britain due to climate change

President Trump’s announcement this week on whether America will pull out of the Paris accord has highlighted the global fears around climate change.

Many experts fear that climate change will lead to flooding, famine – and migration on a scale never seen before in human history, with tens of millions of people displaced.

But how will it change our lives in Britain?

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We’re already seeing some effects in terms of the UK’s burgeoning wine industry – but over the next century, bigger changes are inbound.

We might all get half an hour less sleep per night

As climate change makes our summers hotter, we’re all going to lose sleep – especially older people.

If temperatures rise by 2C, we’ll all lose 30 minutes of sleep a night – and people over 65 could lose as much as 42 minutes a night.

The American study found that each degree rise in temperature from climate change would equate to 15 minutes less sleep – which could have serious effects on health.

Lead author Dr Nick Obradovich said, ‘What our study shows is not only that ambient temperature can play a role in disrupting sleep, but also that climate change might make the situation worse by driving up rates of sleep loss.’

London might stop being so rich

Cities look set to be hardest hit by global warming – due the ‘urban heat island’ effect – and economic output could fall by up to 11%.

Several wide-ranging studies have shown that productivity drops radically as temperatures rise, and some cities could face rises of up to 7C.

‘Urban heat islands’ see cities become warmer than the surrounding countryside – leading to a far greater impact from climate change.

A study of 1,692 cities concluded that up to 25% could warm by more than 7C by the end of this century, in a worst-case scenario.

The Sussex University researchers wrote, ‘For the worst-off city, losses could reach up to 10.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2100.

Malaria and dengue fever may take hold in the UK

Tropical diseases might take hold in the UK as it becomes warmer and wetter due to climate change – and an attractive destination for mosquitoes.

Research by Public Health England warned that malaria in particular could be transmitted within the UK by 2030.

Some climate modelling scenarios suggest that a mosquito species which carries dengue fever could survive by 2030.

We might all have less sex

Contrary to popular belief, we don’t actually feel more amorous when the temperature rises – in fact, it’s the opposite.

Research by the National Bureau of Economic Research tracked 80 years of fertility data against temperatures – and found that hot temperatures cool people’s ardour.

Days where the temperature hits 26 Celsius lead to a measurable drop in birth rate eight to ten months later, the researchers say.

Hull might sink beneath the waves

Most stories about sea level rise focus on island nations in the Pacific – but Hull might actually be under threat.

Dr Hugh Ellis, head of policy at the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), said that Hull was among several areas in the UK which could be under threat if sea levels rose by 4 ft by 2100 (which is at the outside edge of USGCRP National Climate Assessment predictions for sea level rise).

Speaking at the Hay literary festival in 2016, Ellis said, ‘We need to think about moving populations and we need to make new communities. We need to be thinking, does Hull have a future?’

Eating oysters might become very dangerous

Warming ocean waters could make eating oysters a very dangerous habit – due to an upsurge in a bacteria called Vibrio, which can cause fatal food poisoning.

The bacteria is what’s behind the old adage about only eating oysters in months with an ‘r’ in the name – ie in winter, when the water is colder.

Research published in 2016 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggested that the bacteria is becoming more common as ocean temperatures rise – with bacteria in some samples having ‘quadrupled’ over the past 50 years.