“New government-funded research has identified the top 100 effects of climate change and their expected impact on Britain and magnitude over this century.
The “Climate Change Risk Assessment” found that if no further action is taken to address climate change, annual flood damage to buildings could reach between 2.1 billion and 12 billion pounds, compared to current costs of 1.2 billion pounds.
“If I had to pick one particular issue, the flooding issue is the most dominant,” said Bob Watson, chief scientific adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and one of report’s authors.
Britain is already at risk of extreme weather. In 2007, summer floods cost over 3 billion pounds and disruption from snowfall last year cost 600 million pounds a day over a several-day period.
More intense bursts of rainfall in summer and longer rainfall in winter will cause more floods, worsening damage and disruption to infrastructure and property. Over the longer term rising seas will bring coastal flooding, Watson added.
Annual insurance payouts and premiums will rise significantly, and more properties will find it harder to get insurance and obtain mortgages, the report said.
The government is spending 2.1 billion pounds on flood defenses over the next four years, but this represents a cut in funding of around 27 percent, the chairman of the environment agency said when the spending budget was announced in 2010.”
“In the ways of old, in the way we were taught, today is a new beginning, where the sun turns back around and we look forward to a new day, a new year, to a new season,” said Scott Russell, secretary of the Crow Tribe during a Tuesday afternoon where tribal officials thanked the Billings community for help during the recent flooding. The 30-minute ceremony in front of the Billings Chamber of Commerce also included tribal drumming, dancing and a celebration of the first day of summer.
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Dahr Jamail in Fukushima: It’s much worse than you think - Features - Al Jazeera English (via quotingthecrisis)
And now let’s talk about Fort Calhoun, shall we??
(via quotingthecrisis)
Sandbags will hold back the water. Keep calm.
Fortified: A home is seen protected from encroaching floodwaters by a levee near Yazoo City, Mississippi, on Wednesday, May 18. Weeks of heavy rains and runoff from an unusually snowy winter caused the Mississippi River to rise, flooding thousands of homes and 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares) of farmland in Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas and evoking comparisons to historic floods in 1927 and 1937. (Eric Thayer)
Wisconsin Is Open For Business With Kleefisch Trolling For Tourism Dollars
In recent days, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch been going around the state giving out grant money, and talking up tourism. “Wisconsin is done being a hidden gem, ” Kleefisch said, indicating the need for marketing dollars.
“The outlook for Wisconsin tourism this year is pretty darned good,” she said.
The Mississippi River isn’t completely flooded up here.
Unless the Mississippi reverses flow, we’re upstream!
At a distance it looks like beadwork.
Lines of cars lie submerged in overflow water from the Wolf River on McMiller Road near Jackson. Miss on Tuesday, May 2011. (Mike Brown)
And it’s still heading downstream… Well, at least until the New Madrid Seismic Zone is blown and the Mississippi River changes course.
Well This Is Something You Don’t See Every Day of the Day: In order to illustrate the extent of the flood damage in the Brisbane suburb of Milton, an intrepid Aussie goes canoeing through a local McDonald’s.
[presurfer.]
(Source: thedailywhat)
