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Climate change is like 'World War Three' Charles Clover The battle to deal with climate change needs to be fought like "World War Three", the head of the Environment Agency has warned. The agency's chief executive Lady Young said current measures to adapt to a changing climate were "too little, too slowly", and an huge effort was needed to address the crisis. Hilary Benn, Environment Secretary, warned the agency's annual conference in London that global warming was a challenge to security, migration, politics and economics as well as the environment. Lady Young told the conference that Britain would face more droughts, flooding, coastal erosion and loss of biodiversity as the climate altered. She said measures such as improving the resilience of existing homes to flooding, not building on floodplains and improving water use efficiency were needed.
Rising sea levels and coastal erosion threatened £130 billion worth of property around the coast, with the elderly and poor communities most vulnerable, and seaside settlements must have help adapting, she said. "This is World War Three - this is the biggest challenge to face the globe for many, many years. We need the sorts of concerted, fast, integrated and above all huge efforts that went into many actions in times of war.
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