By Chris Welby, Good Energy’s Commercial Director

The government is currently working on the feasibility of constructing a Severn Barrage. While the number crunchers run their slide rules over the various proposals, environmentalists are engaged in some serious soul searching.

A barrage could produce up to 5% of the UK’s electricity requirements from renewable sources (more, if we improve our energy efficiency), however, the impact on the Severn estuary could be, in environmental terms, extremely disruptive. Should we accept local damage to the environment in return for the greater good of the planet? If so, doesn’t the same apply for nuclear power? Is a few fields worth of radioactive contaminated land in return for zero carbon energy also worthwhile?

The answer may depend on where you sit. If you believe that we should live a sustainable lifestyle in harmony with our planet, then no. Damaging the local environment is just the same as the greater damage to the planet. If you sit on the opposite side of the fence, then building the barrage is about damage limitation i.e. a small inconvenience to manage the far greater threat of climate change.

Personally, I sit somewhere in the middle, but with one caveat. A lot of the arguments about the barrage are based on the Severn estuary of today. Truth is, the area is already under threat from rising sea levels from climate damage already done. Bird life on the estuary is already changing as migratory birds move further north or south as a result of global temperature rises. A barrage may, ironically be the saviour of the estuary in holding back the rising seas. Besides, nature is rarely damaged, it just changes. Mudflats may disappear, but new species will arrive to inhabit the new environment. What we need to do is manage that change to maximise the benefit to nature.

Mankind will always disrupt the natural environment it sits in. The key is to find a way to work in harmony with nature as it changes. Not to destroy it, but equally not to try and preserve the local environment in isolation to the world around it.