Discussion > Extreme Weather
Geronimo, I know, but I was commenting more on the politically astute possibility to use green taxes to do flood defences, for which there would be more public support than using them to prop up inefficient renewables.
TheBigYinJames
BigYin
The problem is the whole thing about "green taxes".
Governments in just about the whole of the "western" world seem to have forgotten what they're for.
If you need finance for flood defence then levy a tax. If you need finance to pay unemployment benefit or run a health service or pay MPs then levy a tax.
If you feel that it would be nice and warm and cuddly to "save the planet" then ask me for a donation and I'll tell you where to stick it 'cos it's not government's job to "save the planet" but to look after the interests of its people.
Which ought to include adaptation to (in my young days called 'coping with') what nature throws at us — floods, drought, storms, snow, whatever.
We've got ourselves locked into a combination of gesture politics and nannying and the natives are starting to get restless.
(See also Andrew Lansley this afternoon daring to speak up against the latest piece of medical drivel, namely that sugar is as bad for you as tobacco. Wait and see whether he's forced to back down or whether Miliband or Clegg bully Cameron into sacking him! I almost hope they do as a further example of how intellectually bankrupt and politically dishonest our "leaders" have become.)
Mike Jackson
BH 10th Jan, Cameron may not be right, but he has the right suspicions.
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2014/1/10/friday-funny.html
Eh, makes no sense.
Breath of Fresh Air
Did everyone catch Sean Thomas's brilliant What if man-made climate change is all in the mind? in the Telegraph two days ago, in response to the latest weasel words on the floods from the University of East Anglia? Amusing but genuine questions to ponder.
Richard Drake
Look at Le Quérés response.
Mike Jackson
Aha, thanks Mike.
Richard Drake
Latest on Today this morning,
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2014/2/6/wheedle-wheedle.html
Also on yesterdays Today during EA defence of their lack of future funding and the choices to be made, first class flights to Climate conferences or peoples homes, what a difficult choice :)
Breath of Fresh Air
Lord Smith of 'lots of water for the birds' gets in on the act.
“What we are seeing is increasing levels of erratic weather, very extreme amounts of rainfall. I suspect we are going to see more of that over the next few years.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/10624322/UK-floods-Lord-Smith-declines-to-apologise-to-flooded-householders.html
Breath of Fresh Air
Even Pickles needs some lessons,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10626939/Eric-Pickles-Spend-aid-abroad-to-stop-flooding-in-the-UK.html
Britain’s international aid budget will help reduce flooding in the UK by addressing the causes of climate change abroad, Eric Pickles has said.
Mr Pickles rejected "populist" calls from Ukip and some Tory MPs that money should be diverted from foreign aid budgets to support British people suffering from the effects of flooding suggesting instead that money spent in a "sustainable" way will help alleviate extreme weather in the UK.
Breath of Fresh Air
Meanwhile, fuel for emergency pumps being used to reduce water levels in flooded parts of Somerset is costing close to £1 million a month, MPs have been told. Dozens of pumps have been sent to the Levels – including some from The Netherlands – in the biggest such operation of its kind.
Henry Cator, chairman of the Association of Drainage Authorities (ADA), suggested the bill was a stark signal of the false economy of failing to dredge local rivers.“The cost of inaction is very high too,” he told a Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee hearing about the devastating winter flooding in the South West and other parts of the UK.
The Environment Agency doesn't really mind, because this will be coming out of someone else's pocket/budget, not from their reduced budget for dredging.
Keith Macdonald
"My favourite is when they say 'British weather is now so unpredictable.'"
Tiny I think you've probably stumbled onto the most recent mission statement from the Met Office.
geronimo
TBYJ:
"You could build a lot of flood defences with those green taxes."
With the money we've put into research we could have designed a clean thorium reactor by now.