To be fed up with floods and think it's climate change?

[malificent7]

Live and work in Somerset. Can't get home due to floods. This is the 3rd time in 2 months that the commute has been dangerous. Aibu to think that this is climate change and to be scared and pissed off about it? Yes...i am a contributor to the oroblem. I know.

It’s because it’s warmer than usual. Warmer in winter means more rain falls and less ice or snow. Rain flows faster than ice and snow so the peak flows are more significant and overwhelm the drainage.

Oh dear - I guess you know best - and we will just ignore what 95% of the world's scientists are saying.

I won't bother setting out the facts, as you can't argue with stupid.

I live in an area which always makes the news for flooding. The biggest change is in the reporting by the media and social media.
I was a member of a local rowing club in the late 80s and early 90s. The flooding frequency has not changed, in fact some years we have had no flooding in the last decade. The town I live in was built around canals in the 18th century. They made sure that no building happened on established flood plains. The small town just up the river has complex flood barriers mainly because when goods ceased being transported by river they stopped dredging and flooding became a problem.
If you live in the area it’s comical seeing the fuss the media makes. People don’t do their due diligence when buying property locally. They see a pretty chocolate box house at an amazingly low price and don’t ask why.
Our long rural road follows the river and is closed at two points today because the river will have broken the bank at these points. It does this regularly I know this do take a different route to avoid killing my car. It has been doing this for the las 35+ years, maybe once or twice a year.

Concreting over the greenbelt doesn't help.

It's climate change.
I'm so heartbroken for the people who are flooded. Countless people have lost everything. Then there are the ongoing implications for insurance cost.

A field of cows drowned in the flood water.
In parts of Florida where there has been continual flooding there is simply no insurance.

Definitely think there are trolls on Mumsnet who deliberately downplay climate change.
Given the appalling impact it will have on our children what terrifies me is that the most popular post on the climate change board is the one about what people won't do to stop climate change.

Re climate change - The lack of investment in public transport means that more people than ever are using their cars.

I drove a 250 mile round trip to collect DD for Christmas because the one and only train back after she had finished work was cancelled.

The climate change denial is depressing but not surprising.

Look at the massive overconsumption over Christmas - shops, businesses, and houses with lights blaring in empty rooms and the heating set to 20 degrees for months on end... megatonnes of Chinese plastic tat and disposable 'fashion' offloaded at the ports every day of the week, dreary 'cheap' flights to overcrowded Instagrammable holiday spots... people are determined to do what they like and plug their fingers in their ears and pretend their behaviour isn't having an impact on the climate.

I’m sure I read somewhere that for every degree hotter then there is a 7% increase in water evaporation s which means heavier rains.

It's a combination of private companies (water companies) and highways England (well, in England anyway) that are responsible for blockages and in my experience they like to blame one another and rarely work together. Our drains get backed up at street level because of the state of disrepair they're in (water company's responsibility) and the gullies back up because they get blocked and are often also in a state of disrepair (highways responsibility.) Think that's the right way around anyway. Either way it's a combination of underfunding and privatisation.

The land use of the fields behind our house hasn't changed in over 40 years, possibly a lot longer. When we get heavy rain on sodden ground the run off flows through our garden like a stream. In the first 15 years we lived here it happened a handful of times and certainly not every winter. The last few winters it's happened 2 or 3 times a year. So far this winter it's happened 6 times. No change to anything other than the weather.

Yes it's to do with climate change and the refusal of the authorities to plan for it properly and of individuals to change their lifestyles*.

I suspect nature is going to force our hands in the next few years.

*edited because in some areas it's not individuals' fault eg employers making people travel into offices when they could easily do their job from home most of the time

Climate does change but the pace of it now is down to us

Indeed.

Some things are hard to change but others aren't.

You don't need to buy plastic tat.

You don't need a polluting SUV (unless you live down a potholed rural lane).

You don't need to set off polluting fireworks. Or use a polluting wood burner.

You can wear an extra jumper and turn the heating down a bit.

You don't need to change your kitchen units every 3 years.

Etc Etc

Lots people could do, but refuse to.

Doctor Foster went to Gloucester
In a shower of rain,
He stepped in a puddle,
Right up to his middle,
And never went there again.

Places like Gloucester, Tewkesbury etc have historically been known to flood

Yes - hence why I said it's not always individuals' fault and the authorities need to plan. I'd like to think that a Labour government would invest heavily in public transport/cycle lanes and green technologies, but am not so sure.

We nearly had to take my mum home after Christmas because her train (and reserved seat) was cancelled too. Thankfully there was another train an hour later and I managed to find her a seat on it.

verdantverdure · Today 01:15
**
Any single event might not be climate change.
**
But the overall more frequent incidence of storms, floods, extreme heat etc is climate change.”

This. Flooding is often caused by underfunded councils being unable to keep drains clear/provide defences.

It’s a bit of everything, as these events usually are.

climate change means more extreme weather events are happening more frequently. Our flood / watershed protection systems were designed and built for a different era and will need major upgrades. But (in the UK) the massive lack of investment / maintenance (never mind future-proofing) of these systems means more frequent and more impactful flooding events. So yes, it’s climate change but it’s not just that.

More rain is probably a factor of climate change.

More flooding is because we manage the land badly; paved gardens etc, badly planned building schemes especially on flood plains, insufficient maintenance of drains and sewers.

They're not underfunded, they're incompetent and mismanage everything they get involved in. Why do you think councils have gone bankrupt?

yanbu, we’re in somerset, never known anything like this year. Very rural, so not sure drains can be blamed for all of this. And to say the whole of Somerset was a flood plain is over generalisation.

It does remind me of the 2007 floods.

There is a combination of factors. A warming climate means that the atmosphere holds more water. This leads to bigger flooding events. Ground is saturated after a wetter than average year last year and there is simply nowhere for the water to go, other than eventually into the sea.

As others have said, building on flood plains does not help.

Inadequate and crumbling drain infrastructure and poorly maintained drains by councils does not help either, especially when it comes to road and urban flooding. However, you can't blame huge river floods on blocked drains!

Climate change is here. It is having a real impact. Reducing carbon emissions is important to stop it getting even worse and to eventually reverse the situation. In the mean time, we need to react as a country - to look at planning laws, to invest in flood infrastructure and to get back to funding councils adequately.

A large housing development is planned for just outside our local town. The fields where it is to be built have been under several feet of water for the past few weeks. Who in their right mind would buy a house there? Hopefully the floods will make the developers and local council see sense, but probably not.

The main reason that many higher tier authorities are on the brink of bankruptcy is that the system for funding social care in this country is completely and utterly broken. Social care costs have risen enormously in the last few years due to an ageing population and a shortage of care providers (especially those offering specialist residential placements). Less competition = higher prices.

Councils no longer receive funding from central government and aren’t allowed to increase council tax by enough to make up the shortfall. Also, the government has recently restricted councils’ freedom to increase their income by investing in commercial ventures. So, what do you think they should do?

So, what do you think they should do?

They should stop being incompetent.