Droughts for heaven sakes?
Discussion
The `Meeja' are now bleating about droughts in the UK. It seems they want to latch onto anything, and everything they can, and then over hype or dramatize it in some way to make it news worthy. The irony is that not very long ago, we had floods to contend with, with people in some parts of the country being washed out of house and home.
It may be too simplistic, but logic seems to suggest the best solution would be to find ways and places to move and then store flood waters (So places `dont' get flooded in the winter), which has the added bonus of making more water is available in the summer, when we get less rain.
It may be too simplistic, but logic seems to suggest the best solution would be to find ways and places to move and then store flood waters (So places `dont' get flooded in the winter), which has the added bonus of making more water is available in the summer, when we get less rain.
k off. :-)Bloody medja!!
Drives me nuts.
I'd turn it off but it's my main work. Depressing to have to be force fed it everyday. It's panic about everything.
It was a bit hot a week ago, now I'm cold again and I got caught in the rain on my bike.
It's England.
1976, a proper dry spell and warm and sunny for weeks.
Water in tankers and standpipes.
No bleating about climate, no news flashes, no headlines on the telly in red.
We've had years when there were hosepipe bans even when it's been wet. No bans so far.
I'm going for a walk along the Thames before it dribbles away.
Drives me nuts.
I'd turn it off but it's my main work. Depressing to have to be force fed it everyday. It's panic about everything.
It was a bit hot a week ago, now I'm cold again and I got caught in the rain on my bike.
It's England.
1976, a proper dry spell and warm and sunny for weeks.
Water in tankers and standpipes.
No bleating about climate, no news flashes, no headlines on the telly in red.
We've had years when there were hosepipe bans even when it's been wet. No bans so far.
I'm going for a walk along the Thames before it dribbles away.
A lot of the hype-style coverage seems to cover failure of government policy, as if these events are out of the ordinary… and the solution is taxes/hand wringing, not actually doing something logical or sensible.
Even where events are out of the ordinary they could have been reasonably foreseen and considered in long-term strategy and infrastructure investment.
For instance the valley floods and by the time it and many other rivers hit York, it gets a bit bad.
If they just planted loads of trees around Great Whernside we’d solve the flooding concern as it’d make the land more like a sink than a run-off surface.
You could also have natural habitat for various animals.
A source of wood for industrial use or carbon neutral wood chip burning for energy.
You’d save investment in otherwise pointless flood defences down-stream.
You’d generate sustainable jobs in rural areas.
Carbon capture.
But nope. We need grouse to shoot?
I’ve no idea why we prefer bare moorland vs wooded moorland as it once was.
Just one tiny example in millions of acres of land which are misused for the advantage of the established users/owners who won’t diversify or invest for a better future for all.
Even where events are out of the ordinary they could have been reasonably foreseen and considered in long-term strategy and infrastructure investment.
For instance the valley floods and by the time it and many other rivers hit York, it gets a bit bad.
If they just planted loads of trees around Great Whernside we’d solve the flooding concern as it’d make the land more like a sink than a run-off surface.
You could also have natural habitat for various animals.
A source of wood for industrial use or carbon neutral wood chip burning for energy.
You’d save investment in otherwise pointless flood defences down-stream.
You’d generate sustainable jobs in rural areas.
Carbon capture.
But nope. We need grouse to shoot?
I’ve no idea why we prefer bare moorland vs wooded moorland as it once was.
Just one tiny example in millions of acres of land which are misused for the advantage of the established users/owners who won’t diversify or invest for a better future for all.
I agree that everything that happens is a big song and dance in the media these days. But climate change is a really thing that is happening unfortunately, we can debate the likely severity of it and the extent to which it is caused by human activity but it's still something we are going to have to get much better at managing going forward.
ZedLeg said:
The problem is that floods happen because whatever water management systems we have are being overwhelmed by the volume of water. It would take significant investment in various levels of infrastructure to improve it and no one wants to pay for it.
In some cases yes.. But also it doesn't help when:1. Traditional methods for water control such as ditch clearing and keeping waterways clear of mud and silt build ups have been reduced in key areas in the name of environmentalism and wildlife conservation - even though those ditches and waterways are a vital part of our water management infrastructure
2. We have a nasty habit of building new houses on flood plains. (and then expressing wide eyed surprise when those houses get flooded
3. We have concreted over other soak aways and natural water sinks in many areas and channeled rainwater into drainage systems that were not designed for that increased volume.
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Well, when water was in public ownership there was never enough money made available to fix leaky underground pipes. (It's the usual story with public utilities, they are starved of Government cash when Governments have other, higher profile, more voter friendly things to spend cash on) At one point I think I am correct in saying that approx 40% of water that should have been available for domestic use was being lost through underground pipe leakage.
The privatised companies were tasked with reducing this and I think the leakage rate now is around 20% - so still some way to go, although it will never be eradicated entirely.
andymadmak said:
ZedLeg said:
The problem is that floods happen because whatever water management systems we have are being overwhelmed by the volume of water. It would take significant investment in various levels of infrastructure to improve it and no one wants to pay for it.
In some cases yes.. But also it doesn't help when:1. Traditional methods for water control such as ditch clearing and keeping waterways clear of mud and silt build ups have been reduced in key areas in the name of environmentalism and wildlife conservation - even though those ditches and waterways are a vital part of our water management infrastructure
2. We have a nasty habit of building new houses on flood plains. (and then expressing wide eyed surprise when those houses get flooded
3. We have concreted over other soak aways and natural water sinks in many areas and channeled rainwater into drainage systems that were not designed for that increased volume.
As someone else mentioned the best first step would be to plant trees on moorland near rivers as this would cut down the need to dredge waterways massively. Tree root systems soak up large amounts of water and stabilises the land. Without them the water washes whatever it picks up into rivers
andymadmak said:
In some cases yes.. But also it doesn't help when:
1. Traditional methods for water control such as ditch clearing and keeping waterways clear of mud and silt build ups have been reduced in key areas in the name of environmentalism and wildlife conservation - even though those ditches and waterways are a vital part of our water management infrastructure
2. We have a nasty habit of building new houses on flood plains. (and then expressing wide eyed surprise when those houses get flooded
3. We have concreted over other soak aways and natural water sinks in many areas and channeled rainwater into drainage systems that were not designed for that increased volume.
"Traditional" (i.e. 19th century) methods of treating rivers as drainage ditches were extremely destructive of the natural environment and tended to just shift the problem downstream. Changes in farming practices are a big factor.1. Traditional methods for water control such as ditch clearing and keeping waterways clear of mud and silt build ups have been reduced in key areas in the name of environmentalism and wildlife conservation - even though those ditches and waterways are a vital part of our water management infrastructure
2. We have a nasty habit of building new houses on flood plains. (and then expressing wide eyed surprise when those houses get flooded
3. We have concreted over other soak aways and natural water sinks in many areas and channeled rainwater into drainage systems that were not designed for that increased volume.
My local reservoir is apparently at 51% capacity as of last friday. A bit of Googling shows that we usually start getting "don't waste water" warnings from SWW when it gets to around 45%. Can't find what level it gets to before they start hosepipe bans.
As this is the start of the school holidays, and the local population will more than double for the next six or so weeks, I'm sure that level will drop fairly rapidly unless we get some rain.
As this is the start of the school holidays, and the local population will more than double for the next six or so weeks, I'm sure that level will drop fairly rapidly unless we get some rain.
ARHarh said:
I got an email from Seven Trent water on Sunday about using less water if we can, try to restrict hose pipe use etc. We had 25mm of rain on Sunday. 
We had 5.4mm of rain on sunday. We've had 39mm of rain in the last month.TBH i don't know if that is particularly low compared to previous years, but i do know that the garden is very dry.
boyse7en said:
ARHarh said:
I got an email from Seven Trent water on Sunday about using less water if we can, try to restrict hose pipe use etc. We had 25mm of rain on Sunday.
We had 5.4mm of rain on sunday. We've had 39mm of rain in the last month.TBH i don't know if that is particularly low compared to previous years, but i do know that the garden is very dry.
It's hardly the first time we have had bans on specific usage of water. Why the conspiracy theory now?
Oh it's 2022 and people are more gullible than ever
Some of the discussion here reminds me of some American senator that brought in a ball of snow and decided that climate change wasn't real because we still had snow.
Oh it's 2022 and people are more gullible than ever
Some of the discussion here reminds me of some American senator that brought in a ball of snow and decided that climate change wasn't real because we still had snow.
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