Imagine life in our sweet community in fifty years time: the village of our children and grandchildren. In doing so, we could be looking at a time-bomb that has actually exploded. Global warming, if by then unchecked, will have brought such change and devastation that it might not even be worth living here.

The ecological disaster that will be inflicted upon Chidham is avoidable: that is the starting point. With a deal of effort now, we can save our community for our own children and our children’s children. But what of the nature of that potential disaster? What exactly will happen if we carry on using non-renewable energy and pumping carbon into the atmosphere at current levels? Quite simply, and by the year 2050, average temperatures will have risen by 30C and rainfall will have declined by 35%. In addition, sea levels, around the shoreline and within Chichester Harbour, will have risen by 78 cm.

All this sounds survivable, but it will not be a very pleasant level of survival. The combination of higher temperatures and reduced rainfall will clearly have a major impact. The summer period, being much warmer and much drier, will force a change of crops that can be grown on the local farmlands that surround the village. Potatoes, for instance, will be a non-starter while fields of maize and sunflowers will be much more common. Some of the more adventurous small holders might even turn their attention to the growing of kiwi, dates and other exotic fruits.

But it will not only be farmers who will have to adapt to these conditions. Those who love gardening will have to re-think their verdant lawns and herbaceous borders. Due to the lack of water, some will be able to trial grape vines while others will be growing olives and figs in even the most unsheltered of gardens, giving Chidham the appearance of Mediterranean village rather than a community with its roots in southern England. In other words, the green fields of England will no longer exist in Chidham, replaced by dry, arid fields of dust that can best serve only those plants that require little or no water. Add on a few more years, and maybe by the end of the century, even cactuses might be a gardener’s delight.

An additional problem will be the arrival of disease and, in particular, the return of malaria. Yes, I did say the return of malaria. At one time it was quite a common disease in this country. But it was always a mild form of the disease and often treated locally. The more intense heat of the summer of 2050 would not only ensure a rapid growth in mosquito colonies, but the autumn outbreak would be far more virulent and unpleasant than anything previously seen. Of course, the anopheline mosquito, the vector of this disease, may not have reached Chidham by then, but eventually it will.

And all that’s just summer and autumn. The rest of the year will not be any better. OK, so we will not be having any snow (or hardly any) but it’s these relatively mild winters that will capture all the rain. Instead of having even amounts of rainfall throughout the year, it will all be saved for torrential downpours in winter. The result will be the overflowing of local rivers and streams. If that doesn’t cause flooding, then the increased level of the sea, a result of the melting of the Greenland ice cap, will certainly guarantee it.

Chidham, being only 5m above sea level at its highest point, will be wide open to flooding on any spring high tide that is accompanied by the fierce gales that will be another feature of our near future autumn and winters. Obviously, with a bit of expenditure, a massive series of sea walls could be built, but only if Chidham is prioritised. If not, then houses in Chidham will, by 2050, be uninsurable.

As I have already made clear, this bleak future for the village of Chidham is not a certainty. We can still do much to prevent the future destruction of our community and help protect our grandchildren. Most important is to cut back on levels of carbon emission, the accepted cause of the ‘greenhouse effect’. Check out www.walesfootprint.org/ to get a personal measure of how much carbon you are personally creating. Then, of course, do something about reducing it. Among the easiest and most possible is that of switching cars and purchasing something that is more fuel-efficient (avoiding petrol guzzling 4x4s and BMW 7 series models). At the same time, consider switching to an energy provider that only draws upon renewable energy while fully insulating the house. In addition, car sharing, walking and biking and making fewer air journeys will also help.

But do we have the will power? Hopefully we do. If not, and in fifty years time, we will be the generation held accountable by our grand children for their unnecessary suffering. In surfing the net, or whatever it might be in the year 2050, for purposes of family history research, they will not be pleased to learn of grandparents who proudly drove a high performance car, failed to insulate their house and took two or three thousand miles flights every year to seek out Mediterranean sunshine. After all, in making such discoveries, they would be locating the cause of their own hostile world with its winter floods, summer droughts and autumn diseases.