In all the coverage of widespread flooding, I have only heard one person suggest the role of climate change - Barbara Young, Head of the Environment Agency. If the government or any politicians including Liberal Democrats want the public to be ready to accept taxes or controls on carbon emissions, we have to make the link with the consequences of carrying on as we are.
4 comments:
I heard her, too. She made some predictions about the future, totally without foundation and out of order when people who had predictions of no floods got flooded. Worse than not convincing, particularly when the story about money being bled away from flood prevention projects will not go away.
Why do you say "...without foundation" ? Isn't she in a position where she might know the facts. If you have good reasons to doubt her, please tell me. My point is that we do need to be woken up, even alarmed about the dangers that climate change entails. Hard-headed insurance companies are already alive to the scale of the problem but 56% of the British public still doubts the science.
Who is Barbara Young and why do you think she is in a position to know? And why do you not see that it is a disgrace to be making an excuse that the flooding was caused by climate change and hence was not in anyway something for which the EA was responsible. Well the rainfall was unexpectedly severe and this is due to climate change but the flooding was severe because of building in flood plains, inadequate flood defence, built in most cases to withstand nothing more than a 1 in 50 flood. There is no programme of flood prevention nor of sea defences. That is the responsibility of the Environment Agency and they have failed. And all we get is excuses from Barbara Young. The time is overdue, axe the EA, send Barbara Young off to do whatever it is that she is qualified to do, which is what exactly? and bring the functions of the EA under a directly elected Regional Assembly and fund it properly. If you want to be founder member of the Barbara Young society forget it
Barry, see my new posting for my response.
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