Over two weeks ago, the government's chief scientist warned that for the UK, flash floods were likely to be the biggest immediate problem caused by global warming. Sir David King told a committee of MPs that the country would have to prepare for extreme weather such as heat waves and "torrential downpours". Two weeks later, large areas are counting the cost of worst flooding this country has seen for over 50 years.
Five people are believed dead as a result of the flooding. As I write, the army has been mobilised to help emergency efforts and two more rivers have broken their banks as waters continue to rise.
No-one can say for certain whether the cold and wet record-breaking whether we've experienced this June in the UK is a direct result of climate change but experts agree that the sever storms and flooding will become more frequent as temperatures rise.
Even the tabloids are linking the storms to climate change. The Mirror reported that "Flood damage is becoming more common because of global warming" while warning that insurance companies will increasingly refuse to insure homes built on flood plains.
While the met office warns of further storms to come during the next week, Sir David King warned that in the long-term, as Greenland ice disappeared, rising sea levels would wipe out Britain's coastal town and cities.
"The message that climate change is the biggest change our civilisation has ever had to face up to is getting out there. It's almost become fashionable to talk about it, but fashions come and go," he said and warned that the current interest in global warming had to be more than a passing fad.
People
27.06.2007 17:06
Dweller
Yes Gail
27.06.2007 23:29
Australia is experiencing the worst drought on record,
Southwest US and Southeast US states experiencing worst drought in 100 years,
The strongest thunderstorm (sustained winds of 65 mph) in history last year in St Louis, Mo..
The first ever hurricane hit Brazil last year,
Global and regional mean temps are even with or breaking every record last year and this year,
2005 saw extremely large and numerous Atlantic hurricanes ( Katrina and Rita),
2006 saw extremely large and numerous typhoons in the west pacific,
In May a tornado over two miles wide wiped a town in Kansas off the map,
This year Canada is experiencing record breaking wild fire season,
There are more, I just can't think of any more right now. Thanks for your article.
Don Beck
here's more
28.06.2007 00:00
and they just reported that Texas had 14 inches of rain in a 24 hour period.
This is all very strange weather occurrances and they seem to be happening every damn week!
But that is what the climatologists told us years ago to expect. They said the weather will push the envelope in every direction, droughts, floods, cold snaps and snow events, heat waves....all of it.
That's not to say that it can be proven to be caused by global warming........but........aaaa......well, you make up your own mind.
You might be interested in reading my post of yesterday on this site, "Worst case climate scenario? We got it"
also: Why the IPCC report was so harsh
Don Beck
snow...
28.06.2007 11:25
And lets not forget snow in south Africa…
Slightly alarming
“Mr Priamikov said the area was one of breathtaking natural beauty. It was much drier, colder and quieter than the western Arctic, he added. "I've been there many times. It's an oasis for marine life," he said. Asked whether it would be feasible to drill for oil, he said: "Yes". The shelf was 200 metres deep and oil and gas would be easy to extract, especially with ice melting because of global warming, he said.”
Mary
Floods - Councils to blame.
07.07.2007 11:22
I propose that, in cases where new houses have been affected by flooding, the role of the planning authority should be investigated.
JL (ex-Environment Agency).
Jim Linwood
e-mail:
jlinwood@aol.com