Stormy Weather

[marthe]

Looking at Flay's posting of houses on stilts...they could be the answer for flood and hurricane-prone coastal communities...always a problem along the Eastern seabord of the USA. That said, I hope all is well with FoR3 folks who are living in flooded areas. Our weather "event" has turned out to be business as usual for February. We have been lucky to get rain instead of the foot of wet, heavy snow that others are getting. Fingers crossed that we don't get the high winds that have been forecast.

[MrGongGong]

From todays Independent

The residents of the Thames Valley area voted solidly for our governing parties to pursue policies to cut back spending on many aspects of public provision and safety; the Environment Agency is just one of our institutions to be reduced in size and effectiveness.

We now can see the result of this penny-wise, pound-foolish pursuit, which has left an inadequate response to the current flooding. Austerity of provision has not been matched by austerity of rainfall.

and Mark Steel

So continually debating it, as if both sides are equally valid, makes as much sense as saying: “Now for sport. In the Winter Olympics the ski jumping final takes place today, but first I’m going to talk to Bill, who says there can’t be any ski jumping because gravity doesn’t exist.”

on Nigel Lawson

Then Sir Brian Hoskins, a climate change scientist, replied that in recent years the seas have warmed by 0.8 per cent, and that the West Antarctic ice sheet has receded to an unprecedented level, and along with other changes that this must have had an effect on the weather. To which Nigel replied: “That’s extreme speculation. There’s been no global warming for 15 years and that’s a FACT.”

This is an innovative approach to science – saying that precise statistics from a knighted scientist are speculation – but you can tell a true fact because it’s said by someone who says “and that’s a FACT”. These students who revise for weeks before physics exams, so they can calculate electric currents, are wasting their time. They just need to write “Electricity is made up of tiny flames that live in a plug socket and that’s a FACT.”

and

http://www.transitionnetwork.org/blogs/rob-hopkins/2014-02/open-letter-bbc-lord-lawsons-today-programme-appearance

[Richard Tarleton]

and
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/blo...mme-appearance

What an excellent letter. It's surprising the BBC doesn't feel it needs to field a Bible-belt creationist to counter Attenborough on geology, fossils, evolution etc.....

[amateur51]

From todays Independent



and Mark Steel



on Nigel Lawson




and


http://www.transitionnetwork.org/blo...mme-appearance

Top Post Mr GG - people forget that Thatcher was so appalled by Lawson's time as Chancellor that she got Prof.Alan Walter's in to mark his homework. Big Nige was in turn so appalled that he resigned. Not long after Thatcher did too. Turned out nice again

[EdgeleyRob]

New gutter required at the back of our house and a few slates need replacing.
Nothing compared to what some of those poor people in parts of the UK are going through.
Very calm today but quite cold.

[Anna]

I confess I missed Nigel Lawson but on the link Mr. GG posted there is the email address of Today if others wish to complain. Meanwhile I see on the BBC live updates: the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction Margareta Wahlstrom told R4. "The science has been clear for decades already. We should have acted 10, 20 years ago. The science has been clear that climate variability is a driver of disaster for 40, 50 years," At least this extreme weather will focus the minds of naysayers (well, that is what I am hoping) and they will realise climate change is a science and not just woolly-minded thinking of Guardian readers.

Turned out nice again

Oh, why don't you rub it in Ams? I wish you soft Londoners would get some real weather once in a while ....... I reached my destination this morning giving a very good impersonation of a drowned rat yet again! Horrible here, but not too windy but that rain is COLD. Couldn't see if snow still on peaks, visibility is so bad.
(Flay's last picture is of the market house at Ledbury, built on stilts not to guard against flooding but providing protection for stallholders, I think it dates from mid-1600s, there is a very similar one in Ross-on-Wye)

[mangerton]

Top Post Mr GG - people forget that Thatcher was so appalled by Lawson's time as Chancellor that she got Prof.Alan Walter's in to mark his homework. Big Nige was in turn so appalled that he resigned. Not long after Thatcher did too. Turned out nice again

[amateur51]

Oh, why don't you rub it in Ams? I wish you soft Londoners would get some real weather once in a while

The line you quoted referred not to the weather but to the way in which Thatcher and Lawson contributed to each other's downfall, Anna.

[Anna]

The line you quoted referred not to the weather but to the way in which Thatcher and Lawson contributed to each other's downfall, Anna.

Sorry Ams - I think my brain as well as my feet are sodden!! I liked this quote about the Government's response: “I think they understand now how serious it is,” said Prof Colin Thorne, a flood expert at the University of Nottingham. “I mean holy smoke - it’s right next to Eton College"

[Radio64]

Worcester first pic:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-26169252

..but that cricket pitch always gets flooded .. even after a summer shower ...

[eighthobstruction]

The line you quoted referred not to the weather but to the way in which Thatcher and Lawson contributed to each other's downfall, Anna.

....some sort of Walterfall perhaps....

[kernelbogey]

Nicholas Stern's article (referenced in my post 11655) is worth reading:

The IPCC has concluded from all of the available scientific evidence that it is 95% likely that most of the rise in global average temperature since the middle of the 20th century is due to emissions of greenhouse gases, deforestation and other human activities.

Nigel Lawson and others please note!

[BBMmk2]

What weather!!

[mercia]

Paul and the lovely Debbie have their say - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26184129
not sure he's quite on top of the dredging argument

[Petrushka]

A very nasty evening indeed. Driving rain and a howling gale - again! The walk back home from the railway station was horrendous as it was in my face the whole way.