Sunday 18 July 2021

‘Climate is and will continue to be a WATER event’

There were shocking, apocalyptic scenes in Europe this week.


Hannah Cloke, Professor of Hydrology at the University of Reading, said: 
The deaths and destruction across Europe as a result of flooding is a tragedy that should have been avoided. 
The nature of the storm, the fact that it was extreme, that it had a lot of moisture in it, there was a lot of rainfall, it was slow moving - we have evidence that these types of storms are going to be more likely. 

This is one of those things that you expect to see under a changing climate.
Professor Bill McGuire, from UCL, was more blunt: 
The obvious acceleration of the breakdown of our stable climate simply confirms that - when it comes to the climate emergency - we are in deep, deep s***! 
Aggregate Industries is plainly a company that couldn't care. Its planning application for Straitgate Farm with its 2.5 million mile haulage plan effectively sticks two fingers up at the climate emergency – as does the company's greenwash document – despite all the apparent caring for the planet from parent Holcim, a company perpetually greenwashing its gargantuan CO2 emissions:


Climate change hasn't informed the company's application for Straitgate. No consideration has been given to the impact of the forecast wetter winters on the maximum water table, the base of any quarry; no consideration has been given to the fact that a quarry at Straitgate would PERMANENTLY change the landscape – on a hill above communities already prone to flooding. 


Familiar landscape turned into treacherous terrain: a gravel quarry south of Blessem, 40 hectares (99 acres) wide and 60 metres deep, rapidly filled with water, its edge expanding towards the town through headward erosion, swallowing up several cars, three half-timbered buildings and parts of a castle. 

When the owners of the Blessem gravel quarry applied for an expansion in 2015, local authorities granted their request on the condition they would build a 1.2km protective wall to prevent the pit from filling with water in the event of a flood. 

But the kind of extreme weather events the world is seeing with increasing frequency come with unpredictable consequences. The protective wall between the gravel pit and the Erft proved ineffective as the water overflowed higher up the river, gushing through the streets of the town before collecting at the lowest point.
We must pray the environmentalists below are wrong – No place is “safe” any more. We are entering nightmare times – but prepare as if they're not.
 
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