Feb 11, 2017 at 3:01 PM | Unregistered Commenter Mark Hodgson

The picture in this article of a future housing development must have helped sales. :)

desirable not

MikeJ
Desirable building lots, with electricity, gas and running water?
Flood plains have always done what it says on the tin.
Even Neolithic man had houses with stilts!

Mick J

From that Telegraph article:

"Lord Krebs, head of the CCC's adaptation sub-committee, said: “We are building faster in the flood plain than anywhere else.
“If the planning system is going to allow people to carry on building in the flood plain, we have to be aware we are storing up problems for the future because flooding is going to get more frequent.
“So you are locked into cycle of building and having to defend, and then having to build bigger defences because the flood risk has increased.”"

Krebs neatly avoids the fact that (as Supertroll points out) the clue is in the name - FLOOD plain - and these areas have always flooded, and then tries to blame climate change - "the flood risk has increased."

I'd like to see the report into Cumbrian flooding widely reported to put the record straight - but it won't be.

Many towns have properties 100+ years old that will flood when the adjacent river bursts its banks. Historically, these houses would have flooded, and occupants moved up stairs, until the flood waters receded. It was part of life, and many of the houses were rented, having been built by a local employer. Those houses remain vulnerable to flooding, but are now privately owned, with more expensive fixtures fittings and finishes, and mod cons like electricity etc.

Profit, need and greed, have caused far more houses to be built on flood plains in the last 30 years. "The powers that be" have all been lulled into a false sense of security, or simply turned a blind eye, to the risk of flooding to new developments, as it has allowed them to tick boxes, meet targets, and achieve their short term aims and goals. Flood defences and relief schemes may solve the problems of one area, but they tend to move larger amounts of water, even faster, downstream somewhere else.

Feb 13, 2017 at 12:23 PM | golf charlie

Forgot to add that blaming flooding, particularly of newish houses on Global Warming, is so much easier than blaming a mix of greed, need, and incompetence.

Blaming Global Warming for everything "bad" that happens, has been Politically Correct for 20 years, and the most inept corrupt and guilty have transferred blame away from themselves.

Even Neolithic man had houses with stilts!

Feb 12, 2017 at 2:07 PM | Supertroll

That may have been due to a simple measurement error, having built their houses too far from the ground.

Measure twice, cut once. CAGW in a nutshell, it's not measured, either meteorologically, or politically.
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Probably covered hereabouts at the time but probably worth a mention again. From Paul Homewoods site.

"He told BBC Wales Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is failing to use all historical data to predict the risks.

A NRW spokesman said its flood maps were not underestimating the problem but it was considering using the data.

Prof Macklin, who heads the university's river dynamics and hydrology research group, questioned why NRW uses river gauges from the past 50 years only to predict flood risk.

He told Week In Week Out his researchers had found "evidence of much larger and more frequent floods" in the 18th century, which were between 20% and 30% larger.

Among areas most at risk, Prof Macklin said parts of the upper River Severn in Powys could see flood magnitudes between 20% and 40% greater than what had been experienced since 1980.

"We will need to rethink and re-map our flood plains to look at changing flood risks. If we don't, we're going to put more properties and livelihoods at risk," he said."

link

Interesting podcast with the unspoken about (but hinted at) elephant in the room.

Expert: What You Need To Know About The Oroville Dam Crisis

Interesting podcast about the unspoken (but hinted at) elephant in the room.

Interesting discussion.

Instant mass communication through social media seems to provide a vehicle for magnifying group think and behaviour. Individual emotive reactions, comments or throw away statements can energise others and instantly create a movement with organised activism.

Previously, such thoughts would remain personal, or shared by a few individuals, soon to fade away and become an irrelevant part of history.

I am thinking of Snowflake behaviour at our universities where immature students appear to be traumatised by things like statues, speeches and even paintings of former kings. Then we have the Luvvies of screen and stage horrified by Brexit, migrants and every aspect of Trump. We have seen thousand march in protest at just about everything.

Virtue signalling has entered our vocabulary. Saving the planet must surely rank alongside all these good causes. Doing one’s bit to reduce one’s carbon footprint no doubt exists as a topic in some circles. (Not in mine, thank goodness.) Those who voted for Trump, voted for Brexit or question climate change are regarded as the deplorables like some sort of sub-human creature that inhabits the sewers.

I hesitate to politicise this discussion but there does seem to be a connection with the liberal Left. This is the elitist left, not the working man who used to vote Labour. The deplorables, by the way, probably vote for UKIP and are totally uneducated.

There seems to be a politically active, fashionable, reasonably well to do class of like minded liberals who collectively set standards of groupthink. Those outside of the club are the deplorables who are ant-science, racist, misogynist and worst of all, they read the Daily Mail.

"The deplorables, by the way, probably vote for UKIP and are totally uneducated.

Those outside of the club are the deplorables who are ant-science, racist, misogynist and worst of all, they read the Daily Mail."

I take offense sir!

What leads you to write the above drivel?

An unusually high value of oneself?
No friends to talk with?
A Rolf Harris outlook on life?
On a spectrum of some sort?
Embarrassment at using ones own name?
Beaten at school?
Unemployable?

Some people, when called out on an internet chat forum sometimes say they forgot to add the /sarc but I suspect not in this case.

Love ya Steve, but read it again.
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My understanding is that ant science is not quite formulaic, rather, formic.
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Steve, I was quoting the trendy folks.

Sorry if my comments were misinterpreted. It was supposed to be a slightly tongue in cheek look at how social media has enabled the trendy left to launch lots of protests against things that they don't like, such as Trump supporters, Brexit and people who think global warming is exaggerated. Guardian reader comments (if you can stomach looking at them) are an education on these matters. Apparently, reading the Daily Mail (which I do, along with several other newspapers) is the greatest sin of all.

John Shade,

Fake news is so fashionable now, and Greenpeace should be given credit for getting away with it for such a long time. It is interesting that they should admit it now, as a defence against financial destruction, which is what they have been trying to achieve for others.

Faking Greenpeace liars.