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 has been raining in the West Country since October, with all the associated inconveniences.
Yet on New Year’s Eve the water levels in our two major reservoirs, Roadford and Colliton, were at 81 per cent and 72 per cent respectively. There is something wrong here.

This was a letter in the Telegraph today which I thought was interesting. Can anyone throw any light on it?

Interestingly the stats on our local reservoirs are similar. What's going on?

My DH is a professor in climate change. You can't look at a single episode of flooding and say its climate change. However you can look at the general increase in flooding events and say that's climate change. Wetter winters and increased flooding is what climate scientists have been predicting for years.

Reservoirs are affected by water levels over a long period, we had a very dry winter last year (I think) which brought them very low.

Don't forget the Telegraph is a right-wing climate change-denying paper, so everything they ever publish must be read with that in mind.

Yes absolutely this.

People seem to struggle with the bigger picture - when there is a cold week in August the thickos say 'thought we were supposed to be having global warming' and use it as evidence that climate change isn't happening

It's completely bizarre, isn't it? And why? Why do they deny it? They trot out arguments like "The climate has always changed, there have always been periods of hotter or colder weather, it's natural". Oh wow! I'm sure the thousands of climate scientists have never considered this!!! It never occurred to them for one second! OF COURSE, they have compared the natural climate change to what we're experiencing now and they can very clearly see the difference between natural and man made climate change. I'm sick of this ignorance, of people completely ignoring years of science for some bizarre reason. Just to be contrary.

Also in somerset and both my parents live rurally. It's been frightening at times.
I've absolutely no doubt extreme weather plays a part but my dads neighbor got his tractor out and dug a ditch and the flooding there went down. There isn't adequate drainage. Where we live they are building on flood plains constantly, we know friends who are builders who have real concerns about it. None of this helps.
Bloody love Somerset tho.

Farming practices haven't helped. Farmers were paid to pull up hedges, trees to create huge fields those helped so much to absorb water when it rained. There's been a u turn and they want farmers to create hedges and put in trees again. Neither are the farmers fault. They do as they're told

Building on flood plains
Putting down concrete instead of keeping gardens.

Not a good way to prepare for climate change induced flooding.

Trees help with flooding and excess heat if / when we get it again

We need those green spaces intact

Reservoirs. In Wales whenever they reach a certain level water is released to prevent flooding. Can't speak for England though.

@LightSwerve I got my statistics from the Yorkshire Water website

https://www.yorkshirewater.com/about-us/open-data/watsit-report/

Don't forget the Telegraph is a right-wing climate change-denying paper, so everything they ever publish must be read with that in mind.

I don’t think they were denying climate change here - just stating a fact.

It’s when people rely mostly on social media algorithms to know what’s going on around them in the world.

You can’t rely on that for good quality information. We have oil companies spouting misinformation (much like the tobacco and sugar industries did/do) to protect their vested interests, we have politicians doing the same (my local MP told me that Rosebank oil field would help secure our energy needs and reduce cost of oil - rubbish - foreign company planning to sell the oil on the open market - very little will stay in the UK) and we have Russian and Chinese influence as they try and destabilise us (I sound like a conspiracy nut - but there has been quality investigative journalism on this - widely reported in reputable newspapers) that they are using bots to post destabilising content. It’s working. We are a nation divided.

So if you are using just SM for news and you are not fact checking then you can end up believing all manner of weird stuff (like the QAnon guy that took a gun to free the children being held by high profile people in a basement under a pizza place (didn’t even have a basement!).

Im not excusing such ignorance, but I can see how it happens. A couple of my very intelligent, degree educated friends/family have shunned ‘mainstream media’ and now believe some really spurious stuff that can be debunked with very little effort.

I’ve seen other people take the Medieval Warm Period out of context as a kind of gotcha. Also some Brits think that Global Warming sounds lovely.

I don’t fully understand climate change by any means, but I’ve read enough to be really impressed by how throughly scientists have researched and pieced together the underlying pattern.

Amongst other things, they’ve studied:

Ocean Conveyor Belts (including the Gulf Stream)

Ice-albedo feedback

Ancient air bubbles trapped in glaciers in Greenland

Ancient coral reefs, including one which formed about 120 million years ago

A possible relationship between the Sahara Desert and the Amazon Rainforest. We do know that thousands of years ago, the Sahara Desert was lush and green and the Amazon was much drier and prone to fires.

The effect of forest disturbances on the Siberian carbon sink

The effects of contrails produced by aircraft (I was interested to learn that night flights and winter flights are more damaging to the environment).

July-Dec 2023 was the wettest equivalent period on records since records began in 1890. Not only are we getting more rain overall but we are getting it in much more intense, concentrated and heavy bursts, which overwhelm out infrastructure. Of course the infrastructure can be updated to cope better with this new reality, but that involves a lot of investment. Which I can't see happening.

So yes, it's climate change PLUS inadequate infrastructure to accommodate that change.

Every newspaper states facts, but what facts they state when and for what purpose is something we were taught about in school, it is not new to be mindful of the media you are reading.

Therefore I stand by this: the Telegraph is a right-wing climate change-denying paper, so everything they ever publish must be read with that in mind.

They use a sceptical tone and quote facts that undermine the overall climate change messaging all the time. If you are not aware of it when it is happening, it is easy enough to learn.

I read media that supports my world-view, but I can still smile when I see their careful fact selection.

As I said above, I'm not disputing the facts are facts, I was just pointing out that the Telegraph is a right-wing climate change-denying paper, so everything they ever publish must be read with that in mind. They always have an agenda (as do all media, even the ones that I like because they align with my agenda).

I don't disagree with you about the Telegraph (even though I enjoy doing the crossword) @LightSwerve. I just wanted to point out that I got my facts from a more reputable source.

👌Enjoy your crossword!

I do find it concerning how many people think they are reading a neutral source, when they are not.
I know I do not read a neutral source - I read a paper that aligns with me because it aligns with me. Sometimes I read a paper that doesn't align because I want to read the other side.

But the number of people who think the Mail or the Telegraph is not right-wing just blows my mind.

If you're going to read something, at least understand its agenda. Just because it contains facts does not make it neutral.

I can't remember the last time I bought a newspaper, let alone The Telegraph. I tend to swerve some stories that I read online because I don't trust the source - GB News, Daily Express, for example.

I love the Express headlines.

So and so humiliated by freak weather.

It doesn't help either that the last reservoir to be built in the UK was in 1991. It won't be long before we have hosepipe bans.

It is the same whether online or not - DM website is a major source of news in this country amongst younger people, who when they discuss the site do not identify it as right-wing which is mindblowing really.

Its to do with government and choices made by the environmental agencies.