国家地理-2008-06-07 Sinking England 下沉中的英格兰（在线收听）

All may seem calm along these beautiful stretches of British coastline.But there is a battle being fought on the beaches of Britain.It’s a fight for survival against the mighty force of the North Sea.

Erosion of this coastline has been going on for thousands of years. But things have gotten much worse.

Now, top decisions are being made.Spend millions on defending the battered coastline or abandon huge areas of Britain to the sea.

Here in North Yorkshire, the local and central government has spent a lot of money to defend this battered coastline.

"If we didn't defend, while nature would take its course, and we would invariably lose significant amounts of land, Great Britain is a shrinking asset."

Many seaside towns have to be protected.Cliffs are held in place by rock bolts, and new sand added to receding beaches.

But the majority of the money goes to building new seawalls[1] and repairing the Victorian and even older ones.

The sea defences themselves are in a very sorry state. We simply can't continue to pay for all over[2] the crack.

One reason Britain is in such a bad way is its geology.Due to the earth movements after the last Ice Age, the country is gradually tilting.

So while Scotland rises, the south of England falls.On top of that, global warming is set to really stir things up.Sea levels in the Southern UK are expected to rise about 1-3 feet by the end of the century.

These are the salt marshes of Essex[3], just outside of London.Well, here at Essex, the problem simply couldn't be worse. Because we are in the frontline and that we know that we’ve lost more than 50% of our salt marsh in just 30 years.

Salt marshes help to defend the coastline by absorbing the energy of the waves. In addition to human development, another process is that have reduced the size of the salt marshes.

Flood defenses are preventing them from spreading naturally inland.So instead of building more seawalls, in some places farmland is flooded, and salt marshes recreated, giving natural protection to the coast.

Whether the choice is to battle against nature or work with it, the long-term outcome remains unchanged, Britain is an ever shrinking island.

Notes:
[1]seawall: a wall built beside the sea to stop the water from flowing onto the land
[2]all over: adv. over the whole extent (of)
[3]Essex: A historical region and Anglo-Saxon kingdom of southeast England. Probably settled by Saxons in the early sixth century, the kingdom was long dominated by Mercia and later by Wessex before and after its inclusion in the Danelaw territories from 886 to 917. There are important Roman and Saxon remains in the area.

Vocabulary Mix:
battered: adj out of shape because of age, regular use or frequent accidents
rock bolt: A rock bolt is a long anchor bolt, for stabilizing rock excavations, which may be tunnels or rock cuts. It transfers load from the unstable exterior, to the confined (and much stronger) interior of the rock mass.