Young climate champions needed to represent Wales

THE search is on to find six new climate change champions for Wales.

Merthyr Tydfil student Dafydd Richards, 14, launched the competition for inspiring young people, aged between 14 and 18 years old who are passionate enough about the environment to become Wales’ young ambassadors on climate change.

The Welsh Assembly Government-backed champions will spend a year spreading the word to communities across Wales.

Dafydd Richards, a 2009 champion said: “It has been a great experience and something that I will keep with me for the rest of my life.”

The competition closes on November 18. To find out more visit www.walescarbonfootprint.gov.uk

UK looks to tropics for flood defence help

LONDON (Reuters) - British cities may need to build extreme flood defence measures more commonly found in tropical countries if they are to cope with the growing risk of flash floods caused by climate change, engineers said on Tuesday.

Large open drains and channels down the middle of the road for flood waters, common in some parts of Asia, may be required to deal with surface water from sudden downpours, according to academics and engineers meeting in London.

While Britain is known for its wet weather, the conference heard that global warming has triggered a new pattern of extreme storms that deliver huge amounts of rain over a short time. That can overwhelm the existing network of buried waste water pipes that were designed to cope with less intense rain.

Failure to adapt to the changing weather could lead to more severe flooding of the type that caused 3 billion pounds of damage in Britain in 2007, the engineers said.

"We are getting shorter, more intense bursts of rain than we have historically had," said Scott Steedman, vice president of the Royal Academy of Engineering. "We are looking to learn lessons from wherever we can."

The academy hosted a meeting of industry experts and engineers, including an official from Malaysia where the monsoon rain dwarfs anything typically seen in northern Europe. Storm drains in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur can be several feet deep and carry far more water than the pipes under UK streets.

"Our drainage system does not accommodate the severe storms as it did pre-2000," Roger Falconer, professor of water management at Cardiff University, told a news conference before the academy's meeting. "Almost every major city in the UK is facing similar problems."

As well as open storm drains, the government should consider building reservoirs under city car parks to store flood water. Other ideas include laying porous pavements that soak up rain and erecting fences next to rivers to stop cars and other storm debris from being swept in and blocking the river's flow.

The engineers also want to see more investment in traditional flood defences like walls and the designation of more areas such as parks as overflow lakes for swollen rivers.

More than five million people in England and Wales live in houses at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea and government reports suggest that figure could rise as the weather changes.

A government-backed report said in June that rising temperatures in Britain will bring wetter weather in winter and more drier summers, although with more intense storms.