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The Floods

I live in Cheltenham, just down the road from Tewkesbury and Gloucester, both of which have been affected much more seriously than Cheltenham itself. It’s still bloody miserable for tens of thousands of people in the region, exacerbated by the fact that water supplies are likely to be off for another week or so.

It’s amazing how quickly the “lots of energy” of “all being in it together”, solidarity in adversity and all that, wears off, as does the novelty factor of having no water. It’s just a pain in the neck, especially as our water butt is about to run empty. But the question that’s preoccupying me is how long-lived will the impact of this trauma be? Will it sway the waverers, bring them out of their bunkers of denial on climate change (no, it’s not going to be fun, and who cares if we are able to grow wine in Wigan), and stop them heading off to B&Q to buy their wretched patio heaters?

It’s been encouraging to hear Ministers (including the Prime Minister) linking the floods directly to climate change, which will help, but amongst my many nightmarish visual memories of the much-missed John Prescott is one of him in his green wellies in flood waters in Chichester (or somewhere in Sussex) at least five years ago, categorically asserting that those particular floods were the direct, indisputable, cast-iron consequence of climate change. So why didn’t everybody believe him then? (I don’t really need an answer to that one, by the way!)

BBC - Floods at a glance
Guardian Flood Pictures

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Posted on July 27, 2007 9:34 AM |

Comments (2)

Let's hope the floods will help sway the carbon obese frequent flyers too.

Those that dwell in the deepest bunkers of climate denial.

Posted by Caroline | August 2, 2007 1:00 AM

Climate change or simply regular patterns? There is a reason the old part of Tewkesbury is shaped the way it is, and no old buildings can be found outside that shape which the flood water surounded.

The reason the water invaded the streets was that the ground the water has sat on and become dispursed over for 100s of years is now covered in concrete, plain and simple, yet still they build.

Posted by Stuart Fox | May 30, 2008 11:53 AM

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