What is going on with this freaky weather and natural disasters.

[waterfalls]

I keep thinking about the film 'the day after tomorrow'

ARE all thse latest disasters the start of a severe climate change?

here

Just me then

probably and some think man can affect it - personally I don't - I mean how many of us were there around in the Ice Age?

One theory is that the number of hurricanes, floods and so on haven't increased, it's just that more humans live in their path these days. A hundred years ago not many people lived in Florida, for instance - I gather it was all swamps.

its called global warming.
its man polluting the planet
its a planet with six billion people on it, whom it cannot support.
its like a petri dish in which bacteria have grown everywhere, used up all the nutrients in the agar. even the water. they die. the agar shrinks and shrivels up.

to sustain our lifestyles, we would need something like the resources of 16 planet earths.

its also just plain bad luck

precisely edam

and things like flood barriers that have been put in to protect us, are based on older theories. and they are no longer applicable.

stitch

That is very scary. 16 planets

Thames flood barrier was built to cope with (then rare) combination of high spring tide and north-easterly winds from North Sea. Think was estimated at once in every 40 years? Has had to be raised far more often than that. And no use at all with flooding in the other direction, from flood water running into the Thames from further up the river.

Although when I lived in Hammersmith it was exciting when it flooded - we were a few hundred yards away from the river in a first floor flat so no problem for us, just interesting to see the cars parked near the river with water up to their windows (the ones by the river in Putney got swept away). The older houses along the river had flood protection around their garden walls - glass panels - and flood panels on their doors.

My aunt, born and brought up there, said people had been killed in the block of flats right by Hammersmith bridge by floods back in the 60s...

It's nothing to worry about.. it's just impending doomsday stuff..

CreepyJess

Oh thats ok then, no big deal

I'm bloody worried.
My village was flooded day before yesterday-fireman,sandbags the lot.

Plus I'm going back to Turkey on Sunday where they've just found bird flu.
Bloody great eh??

I think it's a combination of what would happen anyway exacerbated bythe knockon effect of man's actions, burning fossil fuels etc. For example in Dickensian times there was a 'mini ice age' where for deaces the Thames froze over, there were very hard winters etc (Think Christmas cards!) Well, obviously mankind was not responsible for Nature's behaviour back then, but. . .The earth does go through cycles of extreme weather conditions, but I think the evidence of global warming is too scary to ignore. Waterfalls, that film gave me nightmares

I think it would happen anyhow, BUT that human activities and the seemingly blase (sp) reaction to environmental issues by some of the worlds largest polluation makers is making it occur much quicker.

Climate change and a war over resources..oh, our kids are going to have it good when they grow up!

The Day After Tomorrow is a good example Waterfalls as it obliquely refers to exponentials which is what is scaring scientists shitless now. No one is entirely sure when the point of no return will be passed, but many believe it already has and we'll begin to see catastrophic repercussions of that within 25-50 years. It's all very scary.

God Jools, how did you get away with that? I got a right slating on the Margaret Thatcher thread for my scepticism around man's impact.

Obviously the climate is changing, call it global warming, but I don't think I'm the only one unconvinced that it's all our fault!

I googled actually and found a New Scientist paper about it but couldn't be arsed to link it.

an interesting article

Hmmm. I think it may well be too late to seperate the issues (politics and science) especially when the 'sceptic' camps are generally funded by the conservative or business interest lobbies.

I see your point MT (love that name!).

Apparently David Bellamy isn't convinced either

he's a bit mad now though isnt he?

Gobbledispook
general on sceptics

bellamy refuted

correspondence with Bellamy

Apparently December and January are going to be extremely cold compared to the recent winters which have been fairly mild.There is def a feeling that the world has gone mad with disasters weather terror health issues

prays wife of man who runs weather dependent manufacturing business