ON a sunny day in the school summer holidays there are few more family-friendly places than a British beach.

All you need are a bucket and spade, a change of clothes for the children and transport to Scarborough or Filey. Generations have known this to be the recipe for a cheap, cheerful and safe day out.

So it is shocking to think that this tradition may become extinct. In a report today, English Nature suggests that the sands of time are running out for the British seaside break.

Within a 100 years, children building sandcastles on wide open beaches could be just a nostalgic memory, the conservation agency warns.

Why? Global warming.

We are used to seeing television footage of hurricanes and droughts in far-flung countries blamed on climate change. But only when the disaster is on our doorstep do most of us start to take notice.

It happened with the two great North Yorkshire floods. And the threat to the seaside brings the dangers home again.

We will not be the only species to suffer if nothing is done, English Nature points out. Our coastline is also home to diverse flora and fauna which will not survive the sea change.

The report suggests that this catastrophe is not inevitable. If we stop polluting the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, the seaside can be saved.

The PlanetYork experiment proved there is a willingness among ordinary people to do their bit.

Unfortunately, however, there is no sign of the political will to take the difficult decisions needed.

In Britain, the Labour and Conservative parties are now arguing about which is going to spend the most on road-building schemes. Meanwhile, the world's biggest polluter, the United States, has a president funded by the big oil corporations who opted out of the only decent attempt to tackle global warming on an international scale: the Kyoto agreement.

We must do better if our grandchildren and great grandchildren are to ever enjoy a day beside the seaside.

Updated: 10:18 Tuesday, July 22, 2003