Thursday 28 June 2007

Floods & Heatwaves

As North Europeans strike out for the highest ground, our southern cousins strike out for the nearest cool spot as the continent is split in half by an extremely bad tempered Mother Nature.
There are currently 21 severe flood warnings in the UK and rivers bursting their banks all over the country, claiming six lives as a sixth of the annual rainfall came down in 12 hours.
Whole villages in the North of England have been evacuated and the authorities are trying desperately to shore up the Ulley Dam which is in danger of being breached by the flood waters as the MET Office issue further severe weather warnings for the weekend.
A short plane flight away on the other side of the Alps, a heatwave is frying the southern continentals with temperatures reaching 46C (115F) in Greece.
The phenomenal heat has killed at least 42 people, as well as causing hundreds of power cuts and forest fires.
As well as all the droughts, floods and severe weather around the globe, experts at the NOAA Climate Prediction Center are projecting an above average Hurricane Season for the Pacific Coast of North America.
Seems we could well be reaping what we have been sowing for centuries and the frightening thing is that if the expected 2C rise in global temperatures comes about, things are going to get a whole lot worse.

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