h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well there are certainly natural benefits to flooding. Lots of nice rich silt will be moved to the flood plain and when the water does go the angry farmers will have nice rich soil in which to grow their crops. Could save them a penny or two in fertiliser
They can then rebuild their farmhouses on stilts with the profits from a bumper crop.

The public realise Climate Change is a fact. And it's happening now, and promptly change their lifestyles, only using vehicles when essential, preferring bicycles or walking. Also insisting on reduced packaging on goods, and shopping locally, refusing extra bags, preferring to use their own.
There is an additional knock-on through shopping locally, and that is to reduce food intake and waste.

The building industry also becomes leaner, with buildings being raised on stilts, and cars designed as aqua-cars so they double up as boats.

Or maybe not?

MMF

Orcus
You don't understand farmers...
They are always losing according to them.

Bad year, poor crops, prices are high.... "to little of it to make any money".

Good year, excellent crops, so prices are low... "Wasn't worth growing the stuff for the price I got."


You can tell the one who has had a good year, he's the one sitting quietly at the bar keeping his trap shut.

Be patient. Wait long enough, and flooding will come to your neighbourhood.

Renewed impetus in the (up to now) laggardly rate of development of the jet pack.

PP.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26127121

if the south gets any more flooded, the country is going to tip up like a sinking ship (not theoretically possible)

That is actually happening. Due to the weight of the ice sheet during the last ice age pushing the North down and then retreating the North is rising, albeit imperceptibly.

However, the land that is flooded is largely floodplain land anyway and would have been fen, swamp or marsh before being drained either for farming or to be built upon.

London is only the way it is due to the river being tamed, enclosed in concrete and protected by locks and the Thames barrier.

It is one of the reasons it is one of the most dangerous rivers in Britain, with Tower Bridge, followed by Chiswick, easily being the two busiest RNLI stations in Britain.

Hopefully it will be one of those one in a thousand year events, or at least one in one hundred.

MMF

Careful what you wish for
http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=555

I always knew we above southerners

but I wish all well in the weather troublesand hope that illnesses don't take centre stage due to polluted waters

Well the loss of mass in the N and S icecaps may have caused a lowering of the land mass of northern Europe (along with other areas). This has made use more prone to flooding possibly...

The country has been a sinking ship for some time. Why do you think the Scots want to disembark?

PP.

"North of Britain rises while the south sinks" puts me in mind of that song Terry Pratchett's
first small police force would sing concerning that day when they wear the lilac - cannot remember any pertinent words to go with those thoughts LOL except some of the lyrics

Rise up (boys?) rise up
we will rise up

Oohhh found it!!

...All the little angels rise up, rise up.
All the little angels rise up high!
How do they rise up, rise up, rise up?
How do they rise up, rise up high?
They rise heads up, heads up, heads up, they rise heads up, heads up high!

http://www.metafilter.com/103861/The-Glorious-25th-of-May-Do-you-know-where-your-lilac-towel-is

It's going to take a long time for the flooding to go, and then for the effects to go. The water table is so high at the moment, the ground is seriously clogged.
The news outlets have already started to latch onto the pollution in the waters, but they're currently just focussing on the faecal matter, it won't be long before they twig about all the other chemical pollutants from industry and agriculture too.

It's definitely not nice down there at the moment.

lets open the channel tunnel up and drain it off down there

I am not sure I understand this picture

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-weather-torrential-rain-and-flooding-continues-as-winter-storm-hercules-heads-over-from-us-to-add-to-britains-woes-9040902.html

I realize it was back in January - the time isn't the issue - are those people really in the
peril they appear to be in? Can someone familiar with that area explain what the juxtapositioning is there?

Thanks

Oh, maybe you all need more than just one

Yes, they're stupid.

Yes they are. I haven't been keeping a definite tally but it seems the vast majority of the deaths during the flooding have been due to people putting themselves at risk.

From what I have seen recently there seems to be less of that, I'd like to think they have wised up but I am more inclined to think that now we have had so many storms the novelty has worn off

LOL I was looking for a picture to go along with me saying that we have idiots like that in America too and I found this one which clarifies things in that last picture a bit more.

I think those people are following the same urges that bring people out at dusk during rainstorms wearing black who walk in the road - seriously - they do that in America -
do they do it in other countries ?

Oh, sorry

http://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.1619103!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_960/image.jpg