In August 1976 Britain was undergoing the driest summer in over 200 years. The then Labour Prime Minister, James Callaghan, appointed Denis Howell Minister for Drought. Days later heavy rain brought widespread flooding and Howell was made Minister for Floods.
In 2005 the BBC reported that “experts” and “scientists” predicted Britain would have a Mediterranean climate with “warmer drier summers” and “rainfall cut by a third”.*
In February 2020 two scientists had the following very interesting opinions published in letters to The Daily Telegraph. I came across them in the 22 February edition of The Week. I reproduce them below:
Water, water, everwhere.
As a geophysicist, I find it fairly obvious that global warming means the Atlantic will be putting far more water into the atmosphere from now on. As our weather in Britain is mainly driven by Atlantic weather fronts, flooding in these islands is going to become far more common.
The flood defences being built now by the Environment Agency only shift the problem downstream – and were anyway only designed for the lesser floods of the last century.
If Brunel were alive today, we’d probably see a far more long-term vision, such as diverting excess water from upstream choke points through large underground tunnels connected to the nearest estuary such as the Ribble or Humber.
After all, our tunnelling expertise is second to none after the Chunnel and Crossrail projects. Why not capitalise on this and then export the engineering skills to other countries in a similar position?
John Howard, Birmingham.
Forty years ago I was employed as a geologist by an aggregate company to develop gravel pits around the UK.
Under no circumstances would planning permission be granted for any permanent structure on a river’s flood plain, where sand and gravel are generally deposited. Any structure that might restrict the flow of water across the flood plain was prohibited; not even a Portakabin would be tolerated.
Nowadays, entire housing estates are built on flood plains. And people wonder why they are regularly flooded out of house and home.
Jeremy Spencer-Cooper, Easebourne, West Sussex
Oh well, I wonder if the last 45 years has seen climate change, changing opinions or just changeable weather!
*http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/4091068.stm
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