There’s quite a hullabaloo in the UK as the Met Office tries to link recent flooding in Bridgwater, Somerset with global warming, with Lord Lawson even calling Met Office Julia Slingo’s claims “absurd”. Josh even has a cartoon at Bishop Hill about it.
But, even more instructive than the row is this historic map that shows flooding would likely be a normal occurrence in Bridgwater in the county of Somerset, UK, located on this map at right.
Now look at this map from 878AD. “Swamp or Alluvium” anyone? The arrow notation is mine. This is the Danelaw map, from 878 AD, drawn in modern style:
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danelaw
People have been draining the area known as the Somerset Levels since before the Domesday Book in 1086AD. The Levels were frequently flooded by the sea during high tides, a problem that was not resolved until the sea defences were enhanced in the early 20th century.
So, is it any surprise that the water wants to follow the path of least resistance with gravity rather than it being a new feature of “climate change”?
h/t to Jabba The cat
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How about a class action suit by property owners who have suffered losses?
Does UK law allow class action suits for damages caused by negligence or failure to perform a statutory duty?
Lords Sterns comment at the Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/13/storms-floods-climate-change-upon-us-lord-stern#comment-31937661
“Many commentators have suggested that we are suffering from unprecedented extreme weather. There are powerful grounds for arguing that this is part of a trend.”
The 1920’s have been the stormiest and only Scotland has really had any increased rainfall since 1914. But most floods are not in Scotland.
http://ukclimateprojections.metoffice.gov.uk/22864
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/media/pdf/q/h/UK_climate_trends.pdf
Answer?
Make a complaint to BBC complaints online. its simple enough to do. And they are obliged to investigate. And then, when they palm you off, escallate and escallae again.
This is the response to the third-level complaint about a BBC report that tropical cyclones are getting more frequent, when in fact they are decreasing. if you imagine this guy handling 1,000 such complaints (and ‘phoning the newsroom each time for info), the message might at last get through.
You can imagine that people like Evan Davies (aka: tinsel tits**) has no idea that typhoons are decreasing, and was only spouting what he thought was true. Now he might know better.
.
Dear Mr Silver Ralph
Thank you for your email of 10 February regarding the interview between Evan Davis and Jim Yong Kim on Today which was broadcast on 13 November 2013. I’m sorry you’re dissatisfied with the BBC’s response to your complaint. We’ll now begin an investigation into the concerns you have raised, which will include a review of the correspondence so far, a discussion with the programme-makers and any other enquiries that might be appropriate.
As you may know, the remit of the Editorial Complaints Unit is to investigate specific items broadcast or published by the BBC which may have led to a serious breach of the standards expressed in the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines; you can see the guidelines in full at http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/.
This remit means that I cannot consider any broader concerns you may have about the BBC’s coverage of climate change and tropical cyclones in general but I can consider the specific comments made on Today which prompted your initial complaint. I will aim to let you know the outcome of our investigation by 13 March. I should explain that when we have completed our investigation we will send you our provisional conclusions. If you disagree with our finding, you will have ten working days in which to let us have your comments, and we will only finalise our conclusions once those comments have been taken into account.
Yours sincerely
Colin Tregear
Complaints Director, BBC
.
** This esteemed senior reporter wears silver rings in his nipples – which says all you need to know about the BBC.
SR
Reblogged this on Combyne's Weblog and commented:
“In November 2913, the Met Office said there was a “slight signal for below-average precipitation” for December, January and February.”
So how does that marry up with the above average rain seen across parts of the UK?
River levels are above the surrounding land BECAUSE of dredging. Dredgings are placed on the banks forming levees which if not then spread onto surrounding fields will end up raising the river.
If dredgings were spread onto fields, supplying nutrients to help crop yields, then the rivers would be at the correct level and the local water table would be lowered which increases the land’s capacity to water inundation.This reduces the overall flood risk.
Dredging is not a cure all – but had dredging not been stopped, then the floods would not be as severe as they are. Re johnmarshall’s note above – EU directives state that silt from dredging must be treated as toxic waste (you, that’s the EU for you), which of course makes matters even worse.
What is interesting is that the BBC refusing to mention the EU’s part in the mess on the Levels, on their website or on the radio. I don’t have a TV, but would be surprised if that was any different. This of course means they are not telling the whole story, which in turn suggests that they have an agenda WRT the EU. Which they have – they are very pro-EU, which contravenes their charter of impartiality, but the charter has long since been ignored.
Silver ralph says:
February 13, 2014 at 11:29 pm
================================
I believe Mr. Davis in fact sports a penis ring.
Too much information, I know. Here’s Andrew Marr on the BBC…
‘The BBC is “a publicly-funded urban organisation with an abnormally large proportion of younger people, of people in ethnic minorities and almost certainly of gay people, compared with the population at large”.
All this, he said, “creates an innate liberal bias inside the BBC”.’
johnmarshall
“If dredgings were spread onto fields, supplying nutrients to help crop yields, then the rivers would be at the correct level and the local water table would be lowered which increases the land’s capacity to water inundation.This reduces the overall flood risk.”
That is much too much like common sense for our bureaucrats . But we are told that under EU law dredgings must be disposed of as waste and cannot be used either to be placed on the banks or to be spread on fields. Hence making it an extremely expensive material to get rid of. This, apparently, is one of the excuses used by the Environment Agency for having curtailed dredging for the last fifteen years or so.
Once you start using reclaimed land it is a permanent commitment to keep it drained/dredged. Ask the Dutch.
Pumps are actually a good application for wind power…
Is it worth pointing out how cold it’s been this winter in the UK?
MAH = (Media-assisted hysteria)
Matt G says: @ur momisugly February 13, 2014 at 3:38 pm
>>>>>>>>>>>>
I had a chance to do the reading. It turned up a treasure trove some of which I will share here:
The impact of North Atlantic storminess on western European coasts: A review Is pay-walled, however A search lead to a CO2Science discussion of a paper: called: North Atlantic Storms: Medieval Warm Period vs. Little Ice Age
Abstract: connection(DOT)ebscohost.com/c/articles/80000825/north-atlantic-storms-medieval-warm-period-vs-little-ice-age
CO2Science: (wwwDOT)co2science.org/articles/V15/N36/C3.php
This discussion is very much worth the read because it uses several different methods to shows storminess ” is high during the LIA with a marked transition from reduced levels during the MCA [hereafter MWP]
New Insights into North European and North Atlantic Surface Pressure Variability, Storminess, and Related Climatic Change since 1830>b>
connection(DOT)ebscohost.com/c/articles/36003438/new-insights-north-european-north-atlantic-surface-pressure-variability-storminess-related-climatic-change-since-1830
Holocene interplay between a dune field and coastal lakes in the Quiaios– Tocha region, central littoral Portugal
hol(DOT)sagepub.com/content/22/4/383.abstract
Aeolian sand movement and relative sea-level rise in Ho Bugt, western Denmark, during the `Little Ice Age’
hol(DOT)sagepub.com/content/18/6/951.abstract
Structure of the 8200-Year Cold Event Revealed by a Speleothem Trace Element Record has several interesting links to storminess and such. One is The Holocene Asian Monsoon: Links to Solar Changes and North Atlantic Climate looking at “A 5-year-resolution absolute-dated oxygen isotope record from Dongge Cave, southern China, provides a continuous history of the Asian monsoon over the past 9000 years.” with even more interesting links.
RoHa says: @ur momisugly February 13, 2014 at 5:55 pm
Property developers build on flood plains, and it is the fault of environmentalists that the buildings get flooded?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It is the fault of GOVERNMENT. On the one hand they listen to the Econuts and do not keep up the drainages already put in place or insist that new drainage be installed as needed. On the other hand they take the ERRrrr, MMMmm (I got it!) ‘Campaign Contributions’ and look the other way when developers build in unsuitable places.
For example here in the USA I went through all sorts of hoops to get permission to build 110 ft up from the one hundred year flood zone on a ridge a mile from a major river. It took close to a year. I had to get the Army Corp of Engineers and the state geologist to sign off before I was given a building permit. A decade later THE SAME PERSON gave permits to build right next to the river in a flood plain I have seen flooded to at least three or more feet one step from the edge of the water I have no idea how deep it was further out but it was ~ 3000 ft to the normal river bank.
This is typical in any country. Money talks.
@stevec “To be fair, we Brits do rather enjoy a good moan about the weather”
As an English emigre to the USA I am firmly convinced that the main driver behind the British Empire was the desire to find new weather to complain about. And in a nod to Robert W Turner, there is very definitely a Monty Python sketch waiting in my theory.
Incidentally I grew up a few miles north of Upton upon Severn and the markers around town showing the height of various historic floods have to be seen to be believed and neither the current nor the 2007 floods were any where near those marks.
Mike.
Incidentally I grew up a few miles north of Upton upon Severn and the markers around town showing the height of various historic floods have to be seen to be believed and neither the current nor the 2007 floods were any where near those marks.
_________________________________
here are some of those very markers (scroll down to the Upton comment). Shame there is no 2007 and 2014 markers to compare. is that because they are much further down??
http://floodmemories.wordpress.com/category/flood-marks
Gail Combs says:
February 14, 2014 at 6:51 am
“Other studies have ascribed formation of coastal dunes along western European coastlines during the `Little Ice Age’ (LIA) to a combination of increased storminess and low relative sea level. In contrast, we conclude that during the LIA in western Denmark, storminess, transgressive conditions and relative sea-level rise, rather than a sea-level low stand, were important contributing factors to coastal sand movement and dune formation.”
One issue I have is partly blaming sea-level rise to important factors regarding sand movement and dune formation. While this likely has a little influence, if it was a major factor than this behavior would have been observed since early 1900’s with continuing sea level rises after. The evidence here shows sand movement and dune formation doesn’t occur after this period, so very unlikely continued rising sea levels caused it in the first place.
Gail Combs
“It is the fault of GOVERNMENT. ….. On the other hand they take the ERRrrr, MMMmm (I got it!) ‘Campaign Contributions’ and look the other way when developers build in unsuitable places.”
In the UK it was the fault of Government but campaign contributions had nothing to do with it. In order to appease the trade unions Tony Blair made John Prescott his Deputy Prime Minister and gave him the responsibility of producing housing for the flood of immigrants to which he was opening the doors (about 2 million in a ten year period). Prescott, who had much in common with Bill Clinton but without half the brain or any of the charisma, issued dictats to the local authorities that was designed to force them to provide new housing far beyond the capacity of many of the boroughs or counties. If local authority planners rejected a site, and even if that rejection was upheld by the Inspector, the Deputy Prime Minister was able to overrule all objections. After a while, the planners got the message “flood plane or no flood plane, housing is the priority and to hell with the consequences.”
Sadly it looks as if the coalition government finds it easier to follow the Prescott line than to rethink the policy.
The map is inaccurate in that Cornwall was never part of Wessex nor a depency of Wessex, it should be listed as one of the Celtic lands. Also, the English channel would have been called the British sea at that time, it wasn’t referred to as the English channel until after the reformation when English map making was becoming more commonplace.
If you’re goig to claim this to be “history”, then at least get it right. In 878, Cornwall was still an independent Celtic kingdom. We were never part of Wessex, never a dependancy of it. We didn’t even negotiate any sort of treaty with Wessesx until 927.
Sorry you map is incorrect – present Cornwall would be know as Dumnonia and would be considered as separate to ‘England’ until the reign of Henry VIII – not sure the rst is accurate – using the Somerset Levels as always prone to flooding does not explain the extend of this year’s floods?
Nature knows best, bring back the beavers?
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/29/beavers-dam-flooding-owen-paterson
http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Somerset-floods-Beavers-right-idea-say-experts/story-20597352-detail/story.html
Kenneth, Craig & Lance:
The last claimant to the throne of the Kingdom of Cornwall drowned in AD 875. From 815 the kings of Wessex controlled Cornwall to varying degrees as a separate duchy, not officially part of Wessex, but not independent either. Cornish rebels made the understandable mistake of siding with the Danes, but were defeated by the king of Wessex in 838. After Alfred, resistance was useless.
I agree that, despite the overlordship of Wessex, the map ought to show Cornwall as a non-English duchy, although already much of its land was owned by Englishmen & its church was incorporated into the Wessex system.
To — ‘Les Johnson says:
February 13, 2014 at 1:03 pm ‘
I am as opposed to the idea of AGM as anyone around here and the levels should maybe have been dredged.
However to blame the EU for it not being done is wide of the mark. There are clear exceptions in respect of dredging to the EU disposal of waste regulations. The EU does not stop Holland dredging.
Lance Dyer:
At February 15, 2014 at 12:14 pm you say
The Cornish still consider Cornwall to be a separate country from England and that they are answerable to the Stannary Court. Cornwall has its own flag which is the flag of St Pirran and not the English flag of St George. The Bible Rebellion was crushed at the bottom of the hill on which I live, and the rebels objected to the Latin Bible being replaced by the Bible in the English language and not in the Cornish language in Cornish Churches.
But all of that is of little importance.
The Somerset Levels are man-made land which will return to being swamp if the drainage system and pumping systems are not maintained. The pumping was reduced and dredging of the rivers was stopped. The result was inevitable. Some properties were flooded last year and everyone on the levels was begging for the needed dredging to be resumed or they would be flooded this year. Their desperate pleas were rejected and they have all been flooded this year.
Richard
richardscourtney says:
February 15, 2014 at 1:41 pm
At Sampford Courtenay?!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_Book_Rebellion