Dear All,
There is actually so much stuff about this issue floating around its very hard to decipher the facts from fancy full fiction. Last year started off with a hose pipe ban for many, but 2012 turned out to be the second wettest year on record! Before the rain started falling the experts said it would take at least a year of rainfall to fill up the UK aquifers. It took four weeks.
In real terms, based on records kept not through a gaggle of experts throwing paper darts at each other across a table, the UK has been getting steadily wetter since 1960. Overall, the Met Office says the UK's been getting wetter in recent decades, with a five per cent increase in rainfall from 1961-1980 to 1981-2010. And extreme rainfall has also been increasing. The Met Office has also recorded an increase in the frequency of days of extreme rainfall in the UK since 1960. More intense days of rainfall that occur on average about once in every one hundred days over the late twentieth century have been becoming gradually more frequent, nudging closer to once in every 70 days over the past decade or so.
Actually, this extra rain is causing problems.
A bit of blurb first, well,.. not really blurb but research carried out by the DARA Group. (these are independent and refuse to accept funding from any institution or government that might jeopardise their independence) Type in their name to look at them. You can look at everything to do with DARA their funding and all the details. A very transparent organisation, a breath of fresh air in fact.
"Climate change is already contributing to the deaths of nearly 400,000 people a year and costing the world more than $1.2 trillion, wiping 1.6% annually from global GDP, according to a new study.
The impacts are being felt most keenly in developing countries, according to the research, where damage to agricultural production from extreme weather linked to climate change is contributing to deaths from malnutrition, poverty and their associated diseases.
Air pollution caused by the use of fossil fuels is also separately contributing to the deaths of at least 4.5m people a year, the report found.
The 331-page study, entitled Climate Vulnerability Monitor: A Guide to the Cold Calculus of A Hot Planet and published on Wednesday, was carried out by the DARA group, a non-governmental organisation based in Europe, and the Climate Vulnerable Forum. It was written by more than 50 scientists, economists and policy experts, and commissioned by 20 governments.
By 2030, the researchers estimate, the cost of climate change and air pollution combined will rise to 3.2% of global GDP, with the world's least developed countries forecast to bear the brunt, suffering losses of up to 11% of their GDP."
All this rain has an impact on our river systems. But what about those living near rivers?
James Meadway of the Gaurdian said;
"Flood defence expenditure has been cut by 25% since 2010, while 294 schemes that should have received funding since then have yet to be started. The costs apparently saved in cuts to flood defences are more than outweighed by the costs of repairing damage afterwards. One estimate already puts the costs of flooding at £1bn a year – four times the Environment Agency's budget. The coalition's slash-and-burn austerity measures do nothing to help the economy today – and are shoring up huge problems for the future. Every £1 spent on flood defences has been estimated to save £8 in future.
If government has been recklessly short-sighted, the insurance companies are little better. The five biggest firms account for half the domestic market between them. The largest, Aviva, had revenues of £50bn last year. Floods are expensive for insurers. But these huge corporations are more than big enough to take the cost. Guarantees on government flood defence spending are, for them, little more than a means to protect profits – a public subsidy for their shareholders. Householders in high-risk areas still lose out, with reports of those attempting to renew their insurance in recent months being quoted hugely inflated prices."
Then there are the direct effects from siltation through increase rain like reduced rate of egg survival at spawning sites together with spawning gravels becoming compacted. Invertebrate types and numbers reduced whilst extra silt acts as a vehicle for certain pesticides and phosphates.
All this without a single melting glacier in sight.
Regards,
Lee
that their theories are right...and is the ONLY ones to believe 
