Global Warming - harbingers of doom.

[Richard Mason]

Funny really, when I was a kid and we had funny weather, it was all down to the French and the Chinese and their nasty nuclear bomb testing.

Now, it's global warming; if it rains, it's global warming....if it's hot, it's global warming, if it's dry, it's global warming, if it's windy, it's global warming, if it's very dry and they have a frost that damages fruit in the vineyard, it's global warming ......there are even some suggestions that global warming will make it cold.

Now no doubt that climates change and it would appear that it's changing now and most of the money is on human activity as a cause, I'll go with the weight of scientific opinion on that score, but if there's one thing that really gives me the sh!ts (actually it's about 20 things, they don't call me Victor for nothing), it's the way that as soon as we have some weather that's a bit off, it's all down to global warming.

Following several days of heavy rain (hardly unusual for Tasmania in the middle of winter, sat as we are, squarely in the Roaring Forties - it's one reason why almost all of our electricity comes from hydro dams and wind farms), we've had a few rivers burst their banks, nothing like in England BTW, maybe a dozen houses have been flooded along with a fair bit of farmland etc, a few roads cut for a short time (coincided with super-high tides); messy for the people involved but hardly unusual in the historical context, such as the enormous 1929 Flood). It happens about every 10 years here in the South of the State (last one was in 1996) and really bad bushfires every 30-40 yrs (before last year's blazes, the last real bad ones, and they were 10 times as bad, were in 1967).

And now:

Tas floods prompt climate change warning - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Apparently, this flood, this very particular flood, well, it's all because of global warming - it wouldn't have happened otherwise, dead set guaranteed, if you lot weren't driving 4WDs and flying to Sharm twice a year, it would have been light drizzle at the very worst; or so some irritating overbearing twat tried to tell me today.

Sure, I can accept that the statistical probability of an extreme weather event is increased by global warming factors, that's the current wisdom but I find it intensely irritating that the doomsayers, who have no qualifications too pontificate, come out of the woodwork and know exactly why every bit of bad weather happened - Global Warming of course - stupid!

We also just had pretty well the coldest June since records began - if they're micromanaging meteorological interpretation, how do they explain that one?

On a more bitter and twisted note (my specialist field of expertise), I'm searching in vain for the contact details of the German couple who bought this land along the Huon River, sight unseen off t'internet about 5 years ago and then made my life hell because I unreasonably & vindictively recommended refusal of their plans to build a caravan park there on the grounds of historic high flood risk.



The normal river course is at the treeline to the far left of the picture

[Prometheus]

Originally Posted by Richard Mason

On a more bitter and twisted note (my specialist field of expertise), I'm searching in vain for the contact details of the German couple who bought this land along the Huon River, sight unseen off t'internet about 5 years ago and then made my life hell because I unreasonably & vindictively recommended refusal of their plans to build a caravan park there on the grounds of historic high flood risk.



The normal river course is at the treeline to the far left of the picture

OK, a slight dampness I agree, but an objection! . You could have a "Tazzie whitewater caravan event".

[chrisch]

Originally Posted by Richard Mason

... I unreasonably & vindictively recommended refusal of their plans to build a caravan park there on the grounds of historic high flood risk.
...

Huhmmmph.

Just think how much more funny the picture would have been if there were caravans floating in it.....

Spoilsport.

chris

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by chrisch

Huhmmmph.

Just think how much more funny the picture would have been if there were caravans floating in it.....

Spoilsport.

chris

Yeah and the bit where I ended up going to court when we were sued for approving it. Real spoilsport miserable prick.