The warmer climate means melons can be grown outdoors, although it also has led to a malaria scare in nearby Tunbridge Wells. The agency's picture of life in Britain in 2020 is not all bad. The air is cleaner, public transport is much better, and because of congestion charges and home working traffic jams are becoming a distant memory.
Worldwide there are serious problems for less technology based societies. Large parts of central Africa are becoming uninhabitable because of climate change. The sea is encroaching on many low lying coastal areas causing a huge refugee crisis.
The vision of a vastly changed lifestyle for the Dumill family, which includes travelling by train to eastern Europe for holidays on the Black Sea coast because air travel is so expensive, is based on papers being presented to a two day conference, 2020 Vision, in London starting yesterday. It is jointly sponsored by The Guardian.
Among the speakers were the UK environment secretary, Margaret Beckett, and Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, who both warn of the dangers to Britain of the inequality between rich and poor countries.
Yesterday, Beckett was expected to say that destruction of the environment at current levels is going to be a long term threat to peace and security in the UK. Millions of people will be on the move across the world because of flooding and droughts. Along with the UK international development minister, Hilary Benn, she has ordered a new report on water and sanitation and a taskforce has been set up to push Britain towards sustainable development. This kind of initiative will lead to every household having its own water purification and recycling unit to cut down on the need for new supplies.
Beckett's taskforce will look at the long term need to change the taxation policy to regulate waste and increase technology and innovation. Among the suggestions the UK Environment Agency is making is an individual household allocation of greenhouse gas emissions measured by smart card, exceeding which will lead to extra taxes.
Barbara Young, the agency's chief executive, will tell the conference that gadgets and technical fixes are only part of the answer, and a cultural shift in society is required. Modernizing regulations so that use of resources like power, water and wood are minimized is essential. The electronic devices will merely help us to measure what is going on and prevent our excesses.
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