bigsteve Posted July 23, 2007 Report Share Posted July 23, 2007 ...Order an independent inquiry. Saves anybody's job these days. btw, I'm in no way suggesting that the floods over the recent weeks could have been predicted and any defences would have stopped them, because it wouldn't - I'm just sick of hearing about independent reviews that do nothing but keep someone in a job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briggsy Posted July 23, 2007 Report Share Posted July 23, 2007 I agree - they're a complete waste of time and money. Its just a way of buying time to think of excuses. Two other things that annoy me which are kind of similar in a way. These pointless studies that are carried out such as "Scientists have discovered that the key to a perfect cup of tea is to let it brew for 3 minutes and 30 seconds, adding the milk first, etc" - who on earth pays these people, and what does it achieve? The other thing that annoys me, and is a serious waste of tax payers money, is post mortem's when the cause of death is blatantly obvious. Example: Someone is driving a car, and gets hit head on by another car. The person that died has a post mortem to confirm the cause of death. It doesn't need Sherlock Holmes to work out that he was hit at 70mph. "Oh, well actually Mr Smith, we found out that your husband would have survived the crash - but unfortunately, he was eating a digestive biscuit at the time - and it was that that he choked on, not the impact of the car accident". I might sound harsh, but its blatantly obvious what the cause of death was - why spend thousands just to confirm what we already know? It doesn't bring the person back, and it doesn't help anyone - it just wastes money. When I die, i'd like to think they won't bother wasting that money on me - instead, use it to fund medication for someone that is still alive - but could die without it. Thats where the money could be useful. There's no point spending it on me when i'm dead - it won't bring me back. Use it on someone that needs it instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quadrant Posted July 24, 2007 Report Share Posted July 24, 2007 No point of independent enquiries because the government will fix the results. I am not joking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigsteve Posted July 24, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2007 I agree - they're a complete waste of time and money. Its just a way of buying time to think of excuses. Thats the point really - how we can we get out of this little mess. Going back onto the floods, I wonder what the inquiry will find? Probs that a month's rain fell in 1 hour. Imagine the amount of water you would use to have a shower over a month, falling in a single shower. Quite obviously your house will flood. Never mind, lets get your neighbour to come round and assess what happened. You'll be intrigued when he quizzes all your family members and then suggests that this is a 1 in 200 year occurence, so don't worry about it. And your kids and grandkids won't have to worry either. But it was a worthwhile exercise and you'll now sleep easy knowing that it won't happen again. Just don't invite Murphy round to tell you about his Law. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uberduck Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 Imagine the amount of water you would use to have a shower over a month, falling in a single shower. Quite obviously your house will flood. Thats a quality explanation! They'll have meterologists saying this on the TV soon! I heard the best explanation by one of the BBC's weather bods. He said that in summer we normally have high pressure over us but this year we have low pressure and its bringing rain . Erm......... Errrrr....... In respect of what we can do about it? Well not much really as this sort of extreme weather simply overloads our capacity to get rid of it and that relates to both natural (rivers, streams etc) and man made (drains, culverts etc) systems. Even if we built 15ft high flood banks either side of major rivers, there's always going to be flooding on the little waterways. Working for the Environment Agency over the past few weeks has shown me the widespread nature of this flooding in that events have been caused by both big rivers and tiny streams flooding. Its nature. Simple as. Floooding is just part of nature but when we build in flood plains we're gonna get wet. People get so wound up by flooding and blame the government but in reality, what can they actually do? Put a big fu*ck off umbrella over England? :confused: As climate change is accepted as a process thats actually happening (claims it's not happening have been proven otherwise), we've just gotta get used to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briggsy Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 As climate change is accepted as a process thats actually happening (claims it's not happening have been proven otherwise), we've just gotta get used to it. We seem to blame everything on climate change these days. I'm not convinced that this is down to global warming - its just an excuse the government want to use to introduce taxes to encourage us to be more environmentally friendly. If this happened year after year, then fair enough - but this is one summer we're talking about. We've had rain galore, and everyone is saying its down to global warming. Last year, we had a gorgeous summer - it was nice and hot from early July, right into late September - yet everyone was saying that that was down to global warming too. In reality, nothing has changed - its just Britain, not global warming - we've always had good summers and bad summers. Nobody mentioned anything about global warming when we had those severe hurricanes about 13 years ago - because we weren't as aware of it then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigsteve Posted July 25, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 2 good points above: Uber mentioned flood plains. Only yesterday I was told to make a 'no comment' on a planning application for a ***best not say exactly what*** which is proposed on a flood plain. tbf, its not the building thats at fault - its the huge flood defences built alongside the river. The more defences that are built create a ravine effect. Therefore the water backs up, upstream of the defences. If the water was allowed to flood on natural floodplains, then there wouldn't be a problem. Then Briggsy mentioned the climate and rightly mentioned the heat of last July. We've had a few dry summers on the trot, so surely this wet spell is just even-ing it out? Who knows. Maybe our grandkids can tell us when they come and join us upstairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briggsy Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 Then Briggsy mentioned the climate and rightly mentioned the heat of last July. We've had a few dry summers on the trot, so surely this wet spell is just even-ing it out? Who knows. Maybe our grandkids can tell us when they come and join us upstairs. Exactly! Everyone is panciking on the news saying "gloabl warming this, global warming that" - its just a typical unpredictable British summer. Next summer, we could have a scorcher, or we could have severe rain again - but one thing I can guarantee is that whatever we have, people will say its down to global warming - people will be saying "It hasn't rained for weeks Gladys - thats not normal. I put it down to Global warming" or "Blimey Bruce, its been raining for weeks now, thats not right for this time of year - it must be that global warming". If it was global warming, it'd be the same year after year, slowly getting worse - and other countries would also have similar effects. If it really is global warming, perhaps the experts would like to explain why we're having so much rain, yet the Germans are having one of their hottest summers on record (like we did last year!) - surely, if it was down to global warming, then they'd also be experiencing more rain that normal too? If it Really global warming, then why are the summers in the Balearics the same as they were 20 years ago - surely they'd have similar problems? The difference is, the Balaerics have consistency in the weather - they always have. Britain never has, and never will. I'm not falling for the Governments scare stories. If we have floods like this every year for the next five years, then i'll believe that its global warming - but until then, i'm just putting it down to another unpredictable British summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briggsy Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 If the water was allowed to flood on natural floodplains, then there wouldn't be a problem. I agree there too. It doesn't need an expert to work out that water has to flow somewhere. If you prevent it from flowing in one place, it'll just try to flow out elsewhere - so if they build th defences higher in the middle of the country, then it'll just escape at the ends (into the sea) - so that'll just force the tide to come further inland - and then that will mean the tide comes in further, and will start to wash away land there. Somewhere has to get flooded - its as simple as that - if you hold it up in the middle, then the ends will get flooded instead. But of course, when they do build effective defences that hold the water back from flooding there - and forcing it out at the ends instead, and then the sea rises by a few metres, they'll say that the extra water in the sea is down to icebergs melting in Antarctica due to global warming. They won't think that its because they've forced the flood water into the sea rather than from where it naturally wanted to escape.... No matter what happens, the blame will always come back to Global warming... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigsteve Posted July 25, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 No matter what happens, the blame will always come back to Global warming... The more I hear about global warming, the less I believe. That Channel 4 documentary recently showed the other side of it and got me thinking. Anyone fancy helping me organise a Live 'Anti-Scare Stories' Aid Concert? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissie Brown Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 [quote name='Briggsy' date='Jul 25 2007, 08:27 PM' post='34656' I'm not falling for the Governments scare stories. If we have floods like this every year for the next five years, then i'll believe that its global warming - but until then, i'm just putting it down to another unpredictable British summer. I agree. What is a typical British summer, nobody knows because no two summers are alike. With more families concreting over their gardens, to make way for car ports and patios, there is nowhere for the water to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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