Saturday, July 07, 2007

Come to East Yorkshire ...


... and tell me you don't believe in climate change.
The average rainfall for East Yorkshire for June fell in one hour last week.

Even if the recent weather hasn't been directly caused by global warming/climate change, as the planet warms and the ice caps melt, low lying areas like here will be increasingly subject to this kind of thing:


and more people's homes will end up like this:


Luckily we're just high enough above sea level, and apparently are protected by the sea defences, so we didn't really suffer at all. The water has stopped squelching up around my feet when I go out into the garden, which is good; most of my strawberries have rotted on the plants due to the wet (it has rained, torrentially, at some point in every single day for at least a week) but that's trivial - we're not self-sufficient, I'm not trying to make a living from my plants. Market gardeners round here will have been devastated. Pupils from A's old primary school have been rehoused at the University until the summer hols but whether the school will be open in September isn't certain. If you're reading this blog, climate change is affecting someone you know.

So, if, like me you've spent much of the day flitting around the house and garden doing chores and having a quick look at the Live Earth concert every now and then, turn the telly off properly when you go to bed. And turn your computer off too. And recycle the Sunday papers (and all the other paper too, and cans and bottles and cardboard) and make compost, and maybe walk to work or to the shops next week at least once. And buy local (or if you see it on sale, buy fruit and veg that comes from East Yorkshire - every little helps). And even if you don't believe all the stuff about climate change, and think that many of the world's scientists are wrong, wouldn't you prefer not to damage the planet? Just a tiny bit, in case they're right after all?



Photos above are taken from the BBC news websites

12 Comments:

Blogger mernitman said...

Here, here!
And thanks for the (jaw-dropper) photos.

6:40 am  
Blogger Lianne said...

Glad you didn't get flooded, Sal and agree that even the skeptics don't have an excuse. It's not difficult to make small changes. Been thinking today about changes I could make.

5:45 pm  
Blogger Dominic Carver said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

12:08 pm  
Blogger Sal said...

I don't believe in climate change.
Oh. OK. Well, I shall almost certainly come to you for information, with your robust and evidence based approach, rather than scientists who publish in peer reviewed journals, or in New Scientist, or work for the UN

We've only been recording the weather for one hundred years or so.
we've only recorded the weather for one or two hundred years

One hundred years, or two hundred years? Make your mind up. Oh, and check out Galileo, maybe you've heard of him, he was recording weather patterns in the 17th century.

What arrogance that we as humans think we can control the weather by chucking less carbon into the atmosphere.
No-one's claiming to control the weather, but that carbon emissions affect the weather, by, amongst other things, damaging the ozone layer and reducing the extent of the polar ice caps. These are both measurable and verifiable effects. Oh, I forgot, you don't go on facts, you go on beliefs. My apologies.

You only have to look at fossil evidence to know that large parts of the Earth were once covered in water
And? Your point is what, exactly? No-one is claiming that the earth is now the way it has always been, or saying that weather patterns never change, but what's clear is that the speed of change is increasing.

Oh, and by the way, the fossil evidence adds more weight to the arguments about change in carbons and other gases in the atmosphere, thus adding to the centuries of weather pattern recording.

and yet when we get a little rain we cry about it saying it so unfair
Guess no kids round your way were swept to their deaths in swollen rivers last week then? Good. And no-one waded home in thigh deep water after being advised by the police to abandon their car? Guess you haven't lost everything in the downstairs of your home, and your kitchen units haven't been ripped out to be dumped on your lawn while you scrape mud and sewage from your walls and floors.

Congratulations, Dom - you win the prize for the most thoughtless and insensitive comment yet made on this blog.

This planet will out last our species. That's nature for you.
Pity so many species aren't outlasting us.

6:27 pm  
Blogger Scribe LA said...

Oh my goodness!! Hope you and yours are okay! All of the environmental stuff sure makes a girl think...
Scribe

1:20 am  
Blogger Stacie said...

Was sitting in North Dakota last week with fingers crossed that you hadn't returned to a flooded house. My sister survived a flood that devastated the city where she was living at the time. http://www.math.montana.edu/~nmp/materials/ess/hydrosphere/expert/rrf/flood/flood2.html\
Glad all is well for you and A.

5:38 pm  
Blogger Jackie's Garden said...

I think you've written a great post, good job! If we ALL would just do a little part of what you've pointed out - what a difference it would make.

7:02 pm  
Blogger Rhea said...

I am with you! I always wonder how people can dispute the facts about global climate change.

7:34 pm  
Blogger Dominic Carver said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

11:25 pm  
Blogger Sal said...

Scientists (or men of learning) once said the Earth was flat, they have since discovered it is round.
So you accept that science advances, that it gathers useful and verifiable information, and can make a case for a set of provable facts? In that case, you should be aware, and accept, that the majority view is that climate change is happening and that humans are responsible.

I didn't feel the need to look them up.
Why would you? After all, checking out the available evidence might prove yourself wrong, and God knows we wouldn't want that, would we?

There is a £1m house being built near me less than 10 meters from a river that constantly floods. How stupid is that?

Probably very stupid. How do you feel about your use of evidence about flooding in this particular argument, when you've disregarded scientific evidence most of the time so far?

The point I was making was that the evolves and recovers.
Well, we can hope that it recovers, but given the pace of change, the speed of habitat loss, the speed of species loss, I'd argue that anything we can do to slow that pace is a good thing.

those that aren't only have themselves to blame.
I really hope nothing bad happens in your life where you have to rely on the goodness of others, because for sure you aren't giving out much goodness yourself.

Did we kill the t-rex?
Durrrr I dunno - were there humans on Gondwana then? Let me check with my pastor because he says Intelligent Design is the true answer

12:18 am  
Blogger Stu said...

I hate to say...
But there is NO East Yorkshire.

There is North,South & West.

There is Humberside, but no East..

12:31 am  
Blogger Sal said...

I hate to say...
But there is NO East Yorkshire.

There is North,South & West.

There is Humberside, but no East..


Actually, Humberside, as a local authority, disappeared some years ago, although some (old) county wide bodies remain - the Police Authority, for example. And since I pay my council tax to the East Riding of Yorkshire County Coucil, I suspect that East Yorkshire actually does exist.

8:25 pm  

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