This week’s journal Nature published the results of two studies that find link between greenhouse emissions and the observed increase in extreme rains in the Northern Hemisphere as well the increased risk of flooding in the United Kingdom.
In the autumn 2000 were the highest rains in England and Wales since records began in 1766 and now the scientists say they are almost certainly caused by climate change.
UK’s wettest period affecting more than 10.000 homes and more than a billion pounds damage, so this paper shows that we already have climate change and it is not something that will happen in the future.
The results are based on a ran computer models of the atmosphere as it actually was, and parallel models of the atmosphere as it would have been without the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that had accrued from human activities..
A research team led from Oxford University came to a conclusion that the emissions substantially increased the odds of a flood occurring in 2000, with about a doubling of the likelihood.
If the risk of floods is increasing, policymakers will have to be ready to respond but unfortunately in the UK, the government has already made its mind by having cut the flood defence budget by 8% earlier this month.
However, there will be always someone how doesn’t agree with how the results are carried out.
Bjorn Lomborg, the Danish “sceptical environmentalist” told BBC News that society had to look at where and how people lived.
“But is the right way to handle future flooding by focusing on climate change? The answer is no – that’s an incredibly expensive way of making extreme flooding very slightly less likely in 100 years.
“We should focus on the simple ways – making better protection, making sure people don’t settle on flood plains, and that we have some places where rivers can naturally flood as they did in the past.” – published yesterday on BBC News web site.
Written by Jasmina Nikoloska
ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS 