We must learn the long-term lessons of the floods

Recently The Press ran detailed stories on the Boxing Day floods of 2015. A new report is out and it makes for sobering reading. It also makes lots of sensible recommendations, mostly based around more effective communication from and between the emergency services.

But is it just me who fears that we’ve earned – unwittingly, perhaps – increased flooding in the UK?

That word earned must feel contentious. After all, how can any family or individual deserve to have their lives made miserable for a year or more by weather events outside their individual control?

Think of the human cost when your home floods. Treasured possessions ruined, sewage impregnating the whole ground floor with a vile, lingering stench, carpets needing to be replaced. Redecorating and painting, new furniture and insurance hassles. Temporary accommodation while repairs take place. And if you happen to own the flooded property, the prospect of your vital investment becoming unsellable. Not to mention runaway insurance premiums.

All this because you happen to live in a particular area near the Rivers Foss or Ouse.

No one earns that, surely? And of course I would agree, no individual or family ever deserves such pointless misery.

Still it niggles with me that somehow, as a country, as a collective nation, we have been bringing floods upon ourselves for a very long time.

Only a few weeks ago one of President Trump’s first actions was to appoint a climate change denier as the new US Secretary of State and to staff the US environmental agency with people who have close ties to big oil. People for whom regulation is a dirty word. And there are plenty of people in the UK who think – and act – the same way.

You might say the UK is not America. In fact, our small island off the coast of Europe has a far better environmental record than nations like China or India. Except that argument doesn’t quite wash.

Let’s face simple facts: according to one national newspaper, 97 per cent of scientists qualified to comment on such issues are clear that global warming is a product of human activity. That means weather patterns we once considered freak conditions are becoming the new norm. This is occurring because of our addiction to pumping vast quantities of carbon into the atmosphere to fuel our consumer lifestyles. As is the rapid melting of the polar ice caps and rising sea levels. Result: more floods. It’s basic earth science, not rocket science.

RISING TIDE: We must learn the lesson of the floods, says Tim Murgatroyd

So what do we do in the UK to face down this reality? Very little it seems. Instead of investing in renewable energy that will stabilise carbon emissions we encourage the extraction of shale gas through fracking.

We fail to manage “upstream” water flows that benefit a tiny number of farmers and landowners. We flood our streets with petrol guzzling machines that spew out the very thing likely to flood our streets in a far more ruinous sense. As all too many discovered over Christmas 2015.

You might complain lifestyle is a matter of choice. Indeed, a basic right. Why can’t we choose a 4x4 diesel-gobbler if we want one? Or subsidised plane rides to holiday destinations each year even though the environmental cost is an invisible vapour trail that will haunt future generations?

Except that the scientific evidence shows such choices are leading to consequences no sane or responsible person would ever choose.

If we carry on disregarding that reality, our whole species will pay a variety of prices. One of them, perhaps the one we feel closest to in York, will be more flooding and the misery it entails.

The recent independent flood inquiry report listed many positive steps to manage future flooding in our city.

Is it just me who thinks the most effective flood barrier is cutting carbon emissions drastically? Not just in the UK but through binding international agreements we actively encourage and even seek to go beyond. Now that requires a tidal wave of international goodwill and solidarity – and a cleansing downpour of common sense.