Hello and welcome to today's lesson.

This is a geography lesson from our unit all about coasts.

We are investigating what shapes life at the coast, and today we are going to be thinking in particular about things that might threaten the UK coastline.

By the end of the lesson today, you are going to be able to describe how the UK coastline is at risk from threats such as rising sea levels.

To begin with, I'd like to look at some important geographical terminology that you are going to hear today.

These are our keywords for the lesson, so it's important that you understand what these words mean and that you can use them yourself when you are talking about coasts.

Our first keyword is global warming.

This is a very important issue in today's society, so you may have heard of this before.

Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of earth over a long period of time.

By a long period of time, we are talking about over many, many, many years.

Climate change is something that comes about because of global warming, and that's our next keyword for today.

Climate change is large-scale, that means it's a big problem, and it's long-term, that means it's long-lasting.

And the change is a change to the planet's climate.

This includes various weather patterns such as average temperature and rainfall patterns in places all around the world.

And our next keyword you've already heard today, and that is sea level.

Sea level is a measure of the average height that is reached by a body of water, like the sea and the ocean.

It's measured between the low tide, which is the lowest level, and the high tide, which is the highest level.

So sea level is the average height.

Next, our keyword is erosion.

Erosion is a natural process, and during this process, the surface of the earth, whatever it's made from, whether that's rocks or soil, it's worn away and then transported from its original site to somewhere else.

The final keyword for today is risk.

A risk is a possibility or a chance that something bad, unpleasant, possibly dangerous could happen.

So you'll be hearing those words much more during the lesson today.

The lesson today has got two parts.

In our first part of the lesson, we re going to be looking at what is happening to sea levels around the world, and then later we'll bring our focus back in to the UK coastline and see how that is affected.

Climate change, as you've just heard, is a long-term, long-lasting issue, and it's a change to the climate of our planet.

Our planet is becoming warmer and warmer due to global warming, and this has significant impact on the weather patterns that we experience.

This includes temperature and rainfall, and there is nowhere on earth that can escape these changes happening.

Global warming and climate change are bringing about global changes.

Global warming started because of something called the Industrial Revolution.

This is when human beings started to learn about how to use power and modes of transport, and we began to build factories for manufacturing.

It's around that time that we started to pollute our planet, and this changed the composition of the atmosphere, which was the start of global warming.

Take a look at the graph you can see here.

If we look far back into history, as far back as the times of the Romans, right up until the Industrial Revolution, there was very little temperature change.

In fact, the temperature on average on earth stayed within a very small range.

After the Industrial Revolution, all of a sudden, temperature change significantly increased, and this is what we know today as global warming.

Global warming has long-term, large-scale impacts, and that's what we are going to investigate some more in this lesson today.

Coastal communities, all of the people who live at the coast in the UK and in other nations all around the world, they are some of the groups of people who are most at risk and who are especially affected by climate change as a result of global warming.

This tiny coastal community you can see here in Greenland suffers just as much of an impact as other, larger coastal communities in other parts of the world, if not more.

Greenland is the most northern country in the world, as it's so close to the North Pole.

The effects of climate change are very visible here.

Before we move on, let's have a think about this quick question.

This is a true or false challenge for you.

Listen to this sentence.

Climate change only affects some parts of the planet.

Do you think that that sentence is true or false? Have you made a choice? Okay, let's see.

This sentence is definitely false, but can we say why? Why do you think that this sentence is incorrect? Did you have an idea like this one? The impacts of climate change are large-scale and are felt all around the world, although some places are more impacted than others.

We're going to look at that some more now.

The effects of global warming are many.

One of the most significant effects is to do with the areas at the very north and south of our planet, at the poles.

The poles are land masses that are covered in huge sheets of solid ice.

Because of the rising global temperature, those thick sheets of ice that cover the poles are starting to melt.

It isn't just ice melting at the poles, either.

At the top of many of our mountain ranges on earth, we see beautiful snow-covered peaks.

The snow on those mountains is also starting to melt.

This is part of a process that has now been triggered.

Global warming causes global temperatures to rise.

The ice sheets and glaciers start to melt.

The water from that melted ice and from that melted snow on our mountains then enters the water in our rivers and seas.

It becomes part of the hydrological cycle.

It's no longer frozen or kept in those solid states.

As a result of there being more water in our rivers and in our seas, the sea level starts to rise.

That means it increases.

Now, whilst this is a significant contribution to sea levels rising, it is not actually the only reason.

Another cause of sea levels rising is something that we call thermal expansion.

Don't worry if you haven't heard of this before, I'll explain it to you now.

There's also a lovely diagram here for you to examine further.

Global warming is causing the temperatures all around earth to increase, and it's not just the temperatures that we feel and the temperatures on lands that are increasing, but it's also the temperature of our water bodies, the temperature of the water in our oceans and seas.

Now, when water heats up, the molecules obtain energy from heat, they have more energy to move about, and this causes the water to expand.

This process of the water expanding as it gets warmer is what we call thermal expansion.

Thermal expansion means that the sea levels rise because the water itself is expanding.

If you look at the diagram, it shows you how much of the sea level rise is accounted for by the melting ice sheets that we have just discussed, and how much more is then contributed by this process of thermal expansion.

This graph helps us to see very quickly and easily how global sea levels have been changing.

We have the global sea level change on the Y axis and we have time on the X axis.

This graph covers a period of about 140 years, from 1880 to 2020.

What we can see here on this graph is that although there are fluctuations, there is generally a rising trend.

This means that the sea level has, over that 140-year period, increased significantly.

These rising sea levels are one of the biggest threats to coastal communities.

Firstly, because with rising sea levels, it means there's a greater chance of flooding.

The risk of flooding around our coastal settlements is much greater today than it was in the past.

But it also means there is an increased rate of erosion along our coastlines.

Sea levels directly contribute to the rates of erosion that we experience.

So, let's have a quick check on our learning so far at this point.

Have you been paying attention? Can you tell me which of these things contribute to our rising sea levels? A, seawaters evaporating, B, ice sheets melting at the poles, C, water temperatures increasing, and D, more snow in cold countries.

Now, take care, because there could be more than one answer.

Make your choices now.

Are you ready? Let's check.

The first cause is of course those melting ice sheets at our poles, and the second is that increased temperature of the water, which is what leads to thermal expansion.

Well done.

So now we know what causes sea levels to rise.

I would like you to do this short activity now before we move on to bring our focus into the UK in the next half of the lesson.

I would like you to write a paragraph.

This paragraph should explain why global sea levels are higher today than they were in the times of the Romans.

I would like you to try to use the geographical terminology given here in your explanation.

Those words are climate change, weather patterns, temperature, ice sheets, and water.

Pause the video whilst you complete the activity, and then when you come back, I will share an answer with you from one of the Oak Academy students.

Ready? Let's check.

Okay.

This paragraph says that since the Industrial Revolution, human activity has caused temperatures around the world to rise.

The rising temperature impacts weather patterns around the world, like temperatures and rainfall.

This is what we call climate change.

They also cause the temperature of oceans and seas to rise.

The rising global temperature causes snowy regions and ice sheets at the poles to melt.

All the melted snow and ice ends up in the rivers and seas.

Rising temperatures make water expand.

The combination of all of these things causes the sea levels to rise over time, and this is why sea levels are higher today than in the time of the Romans.

I think that's a very thorough explanation, and it's great to see all of that good geographical terminology being used.

We're now going to move into the second part of the lesson, and we're thinking in particular about the coastline of the UK.

We understand what's happening around the world and we understand why our sea levels are rising.

Let's think about how it affects us here in the UK.

As the sea levels are rising, they are contributing to increased rates of coastal erosion.

So coastal erosion is happening more quickly, more frequently.

In the UK, it is the east coast of England particularly that experiences some of the highest rates of coastal erosion.

We're going to focus in even further now onto one particular region.

This is an area called the Holderness coast, which is in Yorkshire on the north east coast of England.

It's a 61-kilometer stretch of coastline, and it goes from Flamborough Head in the north to a place called Spurn Head in the south.

You can see on the map here that the city of Hull, or Kingston upon Hull is its full name, is very close to this area of Holderness.

In some parts of this area, the coastline is being eroded and is retreating at a rate of almost two metres per year, and that happens every year.

Two more metres of coastline is eroded away.

Two more metres the year after that, two more metres the year after that.

This process is continuing to happen, and due to rising sea levels, it is only going to increase.

Can you fill in the blanks now for me in this sentence before we move on? People in coastal areas like Holderness may be concerned about rising sea levels because of, blank, rates of, blank.

What words are missing from that sentence? Have you completed the sentence? Let's check your answers.

Increased rates of erosion.

You might have said coastal erosion, which is also a great answer.

We can use old and new maps for comparison.

These help us to see the scale of erosion that is taking place in coastal areas like Holderness.

The visualisation that you can see here compares an old and a new map of an area of the Holderness coast called Mappleton.

Can you see now how much closer Mappleton is to the sea than it was in the past? Mappleton appears to be moving closer and closer to the sea.

In fact, what is happening is that coastline is being eroded and eroded further back.

It is retreating, and it's this rate of retreat, this rate of erosion, that is being increased by rising sea levels, amongst other things.

As coastal settlements move closer to cliffs, this presents a lot of risks for the people of the community.

So many people in the UK live and work in coastal regions.

In fact, there is nowhere in the UK that's any more than about 112 kilometres from the coast.

All of those people, their homes, their businesses, infrastructure like roads or vehicles, they all come ever closer to falling into the sea as the coastline is retreating.

This caravan park is a business that is dangerously close to the edge of the cliff.

If you take a look at the photograph, you will be able to see cables and pipelines sticking out of the cliff.

Those cables and pipelines once would've carried water and other utilities to other caravans or to other buildings that were part of this caravan park.

They have sadly been lost to the sea as the erosion has retreated the coastline.

Let's take a moment's pause here now for another true or false check on our learning.

Listen to this sentence and decide if you think this one is true or false.

Some settlements are at risk because of increased coastal erosion.

True or false? Ready? Let's check.

This sentence is of course true.

Now, I need you to provide a reason why it is true.

Have you thought of something? Let's check.

Perhaps you had an idea like this answer.

Coastal erosion is happening quicker because of rising sea levels.

As cliffs wear away and collapse over time, they retreat, getting closer to settlements like Mappleton, putting them at greater risk of falling into the sea.

So now that you have explored why we have rising sea levels and what impacts rising sea levels are having in the UK, let's put all that new learning to use in a new activity.

Here is a map which shows another area of the Holderness coast.

This is the area of the UK that experiences some of the greatest rates of coastal erosion, up to two metres a year.

I want you to study the map carefully and identify features on the map that you think could potentially be affected by coastal erosion in the future.

When you have identified those features, I want you to then write a sentence to describe what you think could happen in the future because of that risk of erosion.

Pause the video while you complete the task, and then when you're ready, come back and I'll share some example ideas with you.

All done? Good job.

Let's have a look at some answers together.

I've circled four features on this map.

Did you notice there was a holiday park in the north of the map there at the top? The holiday park might have to close, like the holiday park we saw in Happisburgh, there was caravans that were close to the cliff.

This holiday park could also fall into the cliff, and then where would the tourists go? They would have nowhere to stay, and that caravan park would've closed.

I've also identified this main road on the map here.

That main road could start to fall into the sea at the end.

You can see, follow that road along, it already ends at the holiday park just before the cliff.

It would become a very dangerous road for vehicles to travel on if it suddenly starts falling into the sea.

Next, I identified a farm.

If you see on the map, this farm is actually called Cliff Farm, presumably because it's so close to the cliff.

But if the farm is located so close to the cliff and the cliff is constantly retreating back by two metres a year, then that land that the farm is on is going to be getting eroded away.

Every year, two more metres will be lost, and if the farmland is lost, then where will the farmer graze their animals or grow their crops? It will be a significant loss to the farmer, and he may even have to close his farm.

The fourth feature I identified was this settlement, this built-up area where there are lots of houses.

The people that live there, the local residents, thanks to erosion, their homes are getting closer and closer to the edge of the cliff, and if this continues, people could lose their homes, they could lose shops, other services in their community may all have to close or relocate before they are lost into the sea.

You may have identified other features on the map and talked about those.

For example, I can see other utilities like a drain.

I can see footpaths, I can see a phone box.

I can see lots of other things on the map, and they're fine for you to have described those.

We've learned a lot in this lesson about how rising sea levels are a threat to the UK's coastline.

We now know that the UK coastline is at risk due to sea level rise, and that rise is happening as a result of climate change.

We know that rising sea levels are speeding up the rates of erosion, and this is leading to the east coast of England eroding very quickly.

When erosion happens this quickly, it puts homes and buildings at the top of cliffs and in coastal communities at risk of falling into the sea.

Some parts of the north east coast of the UK, like Holderness, are eroding at a rate of as much as two metres a year.

I hope you've enjoyed learning a lot about coastal erosion today, about rising sea levels, and about what that means for our coastal communities in the UK.

Join me next time to find out more about what shapes life at the coast.

Bye for now.