Global warming and global climate change are just a couple of terms for the gradual warming of our planet. And whether or not you believe in it and whether or not you believe it will happen in our lifetime, it will affect all of us. It will affect those on the poles, those on the coasts and those of us who rely on the climate for our livelihood. Unless we can find a solution to the problem we are surely all headed towards a global disaster on a scale not comprehendible to mankind. And it has already begun.

The county of Norfolk in England lies on the east central side of the island and, according to the British newspaper the Guardian, its people could become England’s first climate change refugees. Refugees not from war, not from genocide, but from climate change. The rising tides of the sea are eroding away the cliff faces that protect the seaside villages from tumbling into the ocean. And it’s quickly becoming an irreparable problem. The Guardian says that scientists, rather than encouraging the building of seaside defences, are telling the people they should gradually retreat inland away from their seaside homes.

Naturally, this is causing an uprising among many of the residents who have lived there all their lives and have built a home and a life in these villages. But within the next 50 to 100 years up to six villages in the county could be washed completely away by the sea, says the Guardian. Essentially, the children of these villages will lose their homes within their lifetime.

If you haven’t accepted global warming yet, it’s time to wake up and take a look around at our friends and our neighbors, families, villages, wildlife and nations that are already suffering under the weight of global climate change. Farmers are facing extreme droughts and extreme flooding, polar bears are drowning and many other forms of wildlife are losing their habitats, and now villages are on the verge of toppling into the sea. And we will only witness more natural disasters on a grand scale like that of Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in India if we continue to live our consumerist lives the way we have. Global warming is a real problem and it’s really happening. In the grand sceme of things, 50 to 100 years is not a lot of time; it’s within our lifetime and our children’s lifetime. If what is going on in Norfolk is anything to say for what is happening elsewhere, the truth and reality of global warming is knocking on our door step, threatening our very existence and it’s time we answered.