Flooding

[MrGongGong]

Can't we leave Sorabji out of this? He was not a member of UKIP (unsurprisingly, as it was only formed some five years after his death) and there is no documentary evidence of his support or otherwise for same-sex marriage or of his views on climate change or the revenge of the Almighty.

OK Boss
I'm loving the bms Legendary WorksCD's though
Keeping me off the streets

[teamsaint]

I think this thread would have been better place in " The Choir".

(I see they are at it again, but they have annexed the EMS sub forum).
Brilliant stuff.

Edit: I can't find anything about flooding. sadshakyheadwitharmsouttosidesmileything

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Here in Filey, there have been floods in recent years. Obviously heavy rainfall has been the majot cause, but man-made factors have made things worse: a 1970s housing estate with no land drains; a stream that ran harmlessly over the surface has been culverted, and it overflows into people's gardens in periods of heavy rainfall.

On the other side of the town, there has been flooding, so an interesting solution is being tried. Underneath a playing field, a gigantic underground tank has been constructed as a flood overflow, and the water is pumped out later.
A good idea on paper, but now there is a new housing development at the top of the hill, reducing natural land drainage, and increasing the likelihood of future flooding.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Once again, flooding is back.

Eric Pickles is "apologising" for the fact that that rivers have not been dredged. That may or may not have made a small difference in some places. The big issue remains the building of houses on flood plains. Rivera have always flooded after heqvy rainfall, and will continue to do so. Our planners and politicians don't seem to have grasped this.
The real issue is that there are too many people. Therefore:
1. More houses are needed, but
2. suitable land is in increasingly short supply, so houses are being built on unsuitable sites such as flood plains;
3. Increasing population means more net CO2 producers, which on the balqnce of probabilities lead to more extreme weather conditions;
4. Extreme weather speeds up coastal erosion and flooding from the sea, which also
5. reduces the amount of agricultural land available to feed the already inflated population.

And so it goes on...

[MrGongGong]

Once again, flooding is back.

Eric Pickles is "apologising" for the fact that that rivers have not been dredged. That may or may not have made a small difference in some places. The big issue remains the building of houses on flood plains. Rivera have always flooded after heqvy rainfall, and will continue to do so. Our planners and politicians don't seem to have grasped this.
The real issue is that there are too many people. Therefore:
1. More houses are needed, but
2. suitable land is in increasingly short supply, so houses are being built on unsuitable sites such as flood plains;
3. Increasing population means more net CO2 producers, which on the balqnce of probabilities lead to more extreme weather conditions;
4. Extreme weather speeds up coastal erosion and flooding from the sea, which also
5. reduces the amount of agricultural land available to feed the already inflated population.

And so it goes on...

Simple solution Alpen

Sterilise the chavs (;-) JOKE )
OR (better still)
stop rewarding people for having lots of children (and I mean EVERYONE just look at the Blairs and "windsors" too many)

[Serial_Apologist]

Once again, flooding is back.

Eric Pickles is "apologising" for the fact that that rivers have not been dredged. That may or may not have made a small difference in some places. The big issue remains the building of houses on flood plains. Rivera have always flooded after heqvy rainfall, and will continue to do so. Our planners and politicians don't seem to have grasped this.
The real issue is that there are too many people. Therefore:
1. More houses are needed, but
2. suitable land is in increasingly short supply, so houses are being built on unsuitable sites such as flood plains;
3. Increasing population means more net CO2 producers, which on the balqnce of probabilities lead to more extreme weather conditions;
4. Extreme weather speeds up coastal erosion and flooding from the sea, which also
5. reduces the amount of agricultural land available to feed the already inflated population.

And so it goes on...

...........unless and until religion disappears off the face of earthlings' points of existence... whereas in fact the reverse seems to be returning exponentially, with religions, especiallly of the more fundamentalist persuasions, becoming more popular than ever.

As the late Professor Hobsbawm said, once you remove socialism, you leave a very big hole.

I'm beginning to despair for the future.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

stop rewarding people for having lots of children (and I mean EVERYONE just look at the Blairs and "windsors" too many)

I couldn't agree more. :ok:

[Flosshilde]

The real issue is that there are too many people. Therefore:
1. More houses are needed,

It's not the number of people but the number of households that cause the problem. There are more single-person households now, each wanting their own home; more single-parent families; more elderly people living on their own; people expecting to live in their own house before they get married.

The emphasis on building houses, each with their own (miniscule) plot of land causes problems - if more flats were built less land would be needed & more dwellings could be fitted on to gap sites in towns & cities.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's not the number of people but the number of households that cause the problem. There are more single-person households now, each wanting their own home; more single-parent families; more elderly people living on their own; people expecting to live in their own house before they get married.

The emphasis on building houses, each with their own (miniscule) plot of land causes problems - if more flats were built less land would be needed & more dwellings could be fitted on to gap sites in towns & cities.

But there's the rub. Flats are abhorrent to many people. Second homes, however, can never be justified when there is such a shortage. But I still maintain that the first priority should be to encourage people to have no more than 2 children. Admittedly there would be an outcry from those who think it is their "right" to have 4 children. We need to develop a cultural awareness that it may not be alright.

[Bryn]

Once again, flooding is back.

Eric Pickles is "apologising" for the fact that that rivers have not been dredged.

The egregious Pickles could make a positive contribution to the resolution of the current flooding, if only a fairly small one, he could use his considerable recumbent bulk to complement one of the sandbag defences.

On this morning's Radio 4 Today programme, Chris Smith made it clear enough why dredging had yet to take place. The Treasury would not countenance it.

[aeolium]

This article is a useful corrective to Pickles' ill-informed comments about the situation, though I still think it overstates the failures of this particular government and understates the failures by successive governments to create a really effective and well-funded strategy to deal with the effects of changing weather patterns. Whether or not ministers subscribe to the theory of man-made climate change, it seems blindingly obvious that it's necessary to invest properly in planning and development that will protect better against extreme weather events which are now much more common. Compare the long-term approach of the Dutch, for instance.

[amateur51]

This article is a useful corrective to Pickles' ill-informed comments about the situation, though I still think it overstates the failures of this particular government and understates the failures by successive governments to create a really effective and well-funded strategy to deal with the effects of changing weather patterns. Whether or not ministers subscribe to the theory of man-made climate change, it seems blindingly obvious that it's necessary to invest properly in planning and development that will protect better against extreme weather events which are now much more common. Compare the long-term approach of the Dutch, for instance.

The current problem exposes the short-term nature of plaaning and its funding from successive governments. They have chosen, against professional advice, not to do anything to rsepond to the imminent impact of climate change on those parts of UK that are vulnerable to flooding. They have chosen this route because to spend this money wisely will result in nothing tangible,and there are no votes in that. How much did the Millennium Dome & attendant celebrations cost (planned by Major, delivered by Blair)? Nicely tangible, y'see.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

well put aeolium and further to the cause this article makes clear that flooding never went away it was ignored

and i find Cris Smith's response to Pickles quite persuasive; dredging the Levels failed the Treasury value for money test and was disallowed .... but of course Pickles got his slur in first

and Simon Jenkins puts the boot right in!

[aeolium]

And Monbiot argued quite recently that dredging was a pointless and counterproductive measure in tackling flooding.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Well, Mr Pickles does tend to speak-before-engaging-brain on occasions.