[Imc-uk-features] feature proposal: A Taste Of Things To Come

[Chris]

Hi

On Fri 06-Jul-2007 at 09:45:43PM +0100, WietsE wrote:
> 
> Nice one Maqui, this is however adding to text of which
> some has already been removed from the original article.
> The wiki shows the latest version, it would be great if
> you could change and add to that.

I've hacked Maqui's text into the feat:

  https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/NottsFeaturePage2

It'll need a typo run I expect, the text is below, see the
wiki for a hyperlinked version.

  A Taste Of Things To Come

  Over three weeks ago, the government's chief scientist
  warned that for the UK, flash floods were likely to be
  the biggest immediate problem caused by global warming.
  David King told a committee of MPs that the country
  would have to prepare for extreme weather such as
  heatwaves and "torrential downpours". Two weeks later,
  large areas are counting the cost of the worst flooding
  this country has seen for over 50 years. The floods have
  left seven people dead and over 40,000 homes damaged.
  The army was mobilised to help with emergency efforts as
  two more rivers broke their banks and water continued to
  rise. Experts agree that the severe storms and flooding
  will become more frequent as temperatures rise.

  Photos: Did Climate Change Cause Floods around
  Nottinghamshire? Pictures 1 | Pictures 2 | 25th June
  2007: Sheffield Floods

  Other Articles: Wet and wild, a taste of things to come
  | Floods hit York | Climate Chaos - read (and weep) all
  about it | Sheffield: 'Cut the Carbon' Cyclecade

  Links: Sheffield Indymedia | Notts Indymedia | Climate
  Indymedia | UK Indymedia Climate Chaos page | June 2007
  United Kingdom floods on Wikipedia | Notts Indymedia
  Weather Page | Slideshow of Floods in Nottingham in 2000
  | Climate change and flood (Environment Agency) | Cool
  Kids For a Cool Climate 
  
  Over the last few weeks the mainstream media as well as
  those across the political spectrum have linked the
  storms to climate change. Which is not only stating the
  obvious, but moreover accepting many of the issues
  climate change activists have been claiming for years:
  climate change is a major issue facing humanity. It's
  been reported that the rate of climate change is twice
  the worst case scenario anticipated 3 years ago.

  One of the effects of climate change that is currently
  manifesting itself across the UK is an increase in
  flooding. In Feburary 2004 temporary flood defences in
  Worcester failed and it was observed that "this is no
  doubt something we'll all have to get a lot more used to
  with the kind of climate changes we are experiencing,
  and which are predicted to continue over the coming
  decades".
  
  Development on land that is prone to flooding,
  especially of housing, is very short-sighted; last year
  activists in Swansea used graffiti to "highlight the
  fact that part of Swansea’s prestigious SA1 development
  on Trawler Road is being built on land that will flood
  unless Climate Change can be averted".
  
  In 2005 James Howard pointed out that "Germany is now at
  risk from more extreme weather, such as heavy rain -
  which raises the risk of flooding, especially the
  densely populated plains of central Europe" and that we
  are not only facing the impact of climate change: "The
  Climate Change movement has been saying for a long time
  that we should change, Peak Oil means categorically we
  have to change." In 2006 a report from Australia
  predicted that "annual flood-related deaths and injuries
  are expected, by 2020, to rise about two and half times
  [current levels] in some regions [of the world], whereas
  that impact on Pacific islands is predicted to be more
  than 50-fold greater".
  
  What no politician or the mainstream media seems to
  acknowledge as yet is the fact that climate change has
  been primarily provoked by the global north's senseless
  drive for depleting the earth's natural resources, and
  its unhindered need for a never ending consumerism. The
  very same politicians now so concerned with climate
  change still refuse to accpet that it is the people
  living in the global south which will suffer climate
  chaos first and more aggressively, causing uncountable
  devastation, including death, mass migration, food and
  energy shortages. Carbon trading, green taxes and
  agrofuel offer no solitions to a crisis that is a social
  issue: "Climate change is not an environmental issue,
  even if NGOs and liberal greens have claimed it so thus
  far. It is above all a social issue, and its impacts
  will affect all our social movements."
  
  In India islands are vanishing beneath rising sea levels
  and thousands are being turned into refugees. The
  "increased frequency and intensity of weather extremes
  like floods, droughts, killer heatwaves, wildfires, and
  hurricanes and cyclones" needs to be also considered in
  context of the global resource wars that are threatening
  the very survival of humanity.
  
  Local Media Coverage of the floods:
  
  Sheffield: Flood refugees' blitz spirit | Worst flood
  Barnsley has ever seen | Sheffield Forum
  
  Nottingham: Nottingham BBC flood pictures | Chaos As
  Torrential Storms Batter Notts | Sinking Feeling As
  Water Rises

Chris