Stormy Weather

[Radio64]

I trust you've all read Ballard's The Drowned World. Oh and The Wind from Nowhere...

[Serial_Apologist]

It's all quite incredible the weather we are experiencing at the moment. The poor people in Dawlish have it really bad. We have had rather strong winds, gusty mostly but quite continuous. Any reason why these weather conditions are happening?

It's the strong westerly jet flow, in turn assisted by the contrast between the cold pool over Canada causing unprecedented cold there (even by their standards) and warm maritime tropical air continually spreading north up off the east coast of the US, just repeating the pattern that's been in place since before Christmas, BBM. Without that sharp temperature contrast along the polar frontal systems powering it, the jet stream wouldn't be as strong, nor would the depressions associated with it be as deep and wound up, as it were. What comes first - the cold polar air over Canada, the warm air coming up from the Caribbean - I've no idea I'm afraid, just being an amateur in this area. But the scientists think our (as in the human race's) meddling with the natural balance of the atmosphere by for examples removing tropical and equatorial forest, which absorbed and released moisture at steady rates helping control the upper atmospheric flow as well as stabilizing soil when now runs down and blocks rivers; dumping Co2 in ever larger quantities into the atmosphere by burning; and by paving/tarmacking over otherwise permeable land surfaces, to say nothing of overpopulation, we have in effect brought about changes in the biosphere that would have taken either millions of years to accomplish by natural evolution, or a few seconds by way of a huge volcanic eruption or an asteroid landing.

[Serial_Apologist]

It seems The Somerset Levels are turning into a disaster zone with a severe flood warning now and police helicopters telling people to evacuate now. In fact the whole South West seems to be drowning, particularly along the coast where severe damage is taking place.

Here it's been rough but winds no more than just over 50mph and a lull from around 1pm until now (more is promised) but we certainly have got off comparatively lightly. (I did see some pics of people waiting outside train stations in London and it seemed there was no weather there!)

It'd all be terribly sad were it not so avoidable were we living under a system that stewarded our care for the planet and its systems more responsibly. Everything, from the competitive greedy wasteful systems run by and for the rich to the philosophies by which most of us live our lives, by choice or not, conspire to maintain and even exacerbate these problems. The ridiculously mistitled great and good flounder around, convoking their international economic conferences which reach wonderful meaningless mission statements, then switching to their Cobra emergency committees, and I don't think anything will be done about anything, just postponement after postponement, until people at the sharp end who've been continually prevailed upon that there is no alternative way of doing things just take it all into their own hands, and no army will be strong enough to stop them. it's a shame that since the alleged "death of Marxism" the only radical alternatives to liberal capitalist economics have been nationalism and religious fundamentalism, because we did once have people like Keynes (not Milton - oh yes, him too!), Schumacher and Capra coming up with sustainable systemic (ie holistic) alternatives, preservative of our modern rationalistic understanding of ourselves and our world around us.

[Anna]

This was in yesterday's Telegraph:

The Environment Agency last year spent £20.3million on dredging rives and repairing culverts under roads and properties official figures show.

In the same year it spent £17.9million on travel and subsistence, up from £13.7million the year before. Staff costs rose by 8% to £395.3million. Newly released documents show that in 2011 the agency spent £593,000 on 1,800 flights (including dozens of business and first class flights) £9,480 was spent on business class flights to attend “Forest Day”, a one-day conference in Durban, to discuss the role of trees in mitigating climate change. There were other trips to San Francisco, Jakarta,, Bali and Rio

As John Redwood MP said “It looks as if the agency has got the balance of its budget wrong”

[Serial_Apologist]

This was in yesterday's Telegraph:

The Environment Agency last year spent £20.3million on dredging rives and repairing culverts under roads and properties official figures show.

In the same year it spent £17.9million on travel and subsistence, up from £13.7million the year before. Staff costs rose by 8% to £395.3million. Newly released documents show that in 2011 the agency spent £593,000 on 1,800 flights (including dozens of business and first class flights) £9,480 was spent on business class flights to attend “Forest Day”, a one-day conference in Durban, to discuss the role of trees in mitigating climate change. There were other trips to San Francisco, Jakarta,, Bali and Rio

As John Redwood MP said “It looks as if the agency has got the balance of its budget wrong”

John Redwood can make as many snide remarks as he likes - it's the system that he's advocated, with probably as much if not more dogmatic enthusiasm than anybody else, that's responsible for all this mess.

[amateur51]

John Redwood can make as many snide remarks as he likes - it's the system that he's advocated, with probably as much if not more dogmatic enthusiasm than anybody else, that's responsible for all this mess.

Ah the Agency, not the Government department that a) sets the budget and b) sets the priorities for the Agency, eh John?

What a very nasty little man he is.

Would anyone mind if I posted the wonderful clip of him, when Secretary of State for Wales, miming/pretending to sing the Welsh national anthem and succeeding only in make a complete fool of himself?

No?

Oh good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA1gBGtOlZU

[Richard Tarleton]

John Redwood can make as many snide remarks as he likes - it's the system that he's advocated, with probably as much if not more dogmatic enthusiasm than anybody else, that's responsible for all this mess.

Erm, S-A, I'd say it was weather and climate that is to a great extent responsible for this mess! Particular political, economic and belief systems are beside the point - they're all part of the anthropocentric view of things that stands in the way of a real understanding of what's happening. Man-made environmental disasters are common to every system on every continent and always have been - it's just that 10,000 years ago there were so few of us it didn't matter so much, things healed up quite quickly.

And just to take a step back - man has only existed for the merest blink of an eye in terms of the life of the planet - which has been alternately hot and cold, wet and dry, tectonic plates have moved around, there have been several mass-extinctions....And it's too late for Buddhist economics, there are just too many of us. I don't think it's quite the end of life as we know it, but the self-destructive feedback systems are well in place. And yes, the "growth paradigm" on which all major economic systems are based, east and west, is fatally flawed, I expect we're agreed there....

Prof John Krebs talked a lot of sense on the Today programme this am.

Is this getting a bit heavy for Stormy Weather? Jolly windy here

[Serial_Apologist]

Erm, S-A, I'd say it was weather and climate that is to a great extent responsible for this mess! Particular political, economic and belief systems are beside the point - they're all part of the anthropocentric view of things that stands in the way of a real understanding of what's happening.

Which is what I think I was saying, Richard - as are you!

[Richard Tarleton]

Which is what I think I was saying, Richard - as are you!

[eighthobstruction]

Those who are the type that buy shares....I think a good bet would be Concrete companies after all this storm damage....

[Serial_Apologist]

Those who are the type that buy shares....I think a good bet would be Concrete companies after all this storm damage....

Well I'm blown! Talk about a turn-up for the trousers, "Brummie Simon's"coming around to our point of view after repeatedly reiterating his climate change skepticism:

http://www.weatherweb.net/wxwebtv2.php

Before clicking on the forecast, click on the link below the left hand window marked "Is this 'climate change' saying hello?" for the retraction. I respect the guy. Then click on aforementioned window. Simon's applying for Met Office registration. Also, at 3.5 minutes in there's a beautiful computer simulation of the current position of the jet stream, followed by the forecasts up to Saturday. Looks like Friday is the best day for getting anything done outdoors.

[Richard Tarleton]

Those who are the type that buy shares....I think a good bet would be Concrete companies after all this storm damage....

Faith in concrete lies behind many of our current problems around the coast.....but you may well be right. Knee jerk reactions win over long term planning every time.

[BBMmk2]

John Redwood can make as many snide remarks as he likes - it's the system that he's advocated, with probably as much if not more dogmatic enthusiasm than anybody else, that's responsible for all this mess.

They certainly need to have their priorities sorted!!

Toothache: Strange how whisky always seems to be the most effective medication!! :) Blended I might add! :)

[Petrushka]

An absolutely vile evening here: heavy rain (again), howling gale (again). There's no end to it!

[BBMmk2]

Not too great a day here!! :(