How the ideological fantasy of a climate change-induced permadrought caused German dam operators to overfill their reservoirs before winter and exacerbated the massive December floods
How the ideological fantasy of a climate change-induced permadrought caused German dam operators to overfill their reservoirs before winter and exacerbated the massive December floods
For years we have been hearing that climate change portends a permanent drought in Central Europe. Although journalists and experts have repeated this mantra at every opportunity, it has very little empirical basis. Precipitation has only been increasing since the beginning of record-keeping, and while groundwater levels have been lower than average in recent years, this arises not from any long-term trend but rather from the anomalously dry years of 2018 and 2019. Precipitation varies; sometimes we have less of it, and sometimes we have more of it, and it has been this way since before mankind ever started burning coal and oil.
Throughout human history, the causes of all famines stem not from adverse weather/crop outcomes, but from political policies that exaggerated their impacts. I would argue that precipitation mismanagement falls into the same category, with Mother Nature serving as the perennial scapegoat. Slightly off-topic, and sorry to direct traffic from eugyppius, but if you have not seen Carlson's interview with Professor Soon (posted yesterday), it is must-watch. Not only is Dr. Soon very amiable, but he skewers both the current Science™ establishment, and the entire notion of CO2 as having anything to do with the fantasy that mankind affects climate in any way. https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1744777758507504061
This last sentence is the killer keeper for all to distribute!!
"The dam operators, however, kept the spigots closed, because climate change is less a scientific finding than it is a political construct and a para-religious dogma, and as such it proves quite robust to petty things like empirical observations and simple prudence."
Excellent analysis. Nothing to add. Only that the engineers, with their fancy degrees, are uncapable of independent thinking and swallow the climate hoax hook, line and sinker.
CO2 has turned out to be one magical molecule. Drought? Climate change. Floods? Climate change. It's pure neurosis. Cold sweats, hot sweats...fingernail sensitivity!
Remember when that submersible, The Titan, was lost? Practically the entire submariner community tried to talk sense into the Ocean's Gate CEO, who airily dismissed the concerns about his vessel's seaworthiness by saying (paraphrased) "we don't want any of those experienced submariners because those are all old 50-year old white guys; we are smarter than those relics, and we have a brand new way of thinking, so we aren't going to listen to them, for they have nothing to tell us."
For how many centuries have the Germanic peoples used dams to control the waters? Doesn't matter. Now we have a new way of doing things, and the old ones are of no use to us now.
One way you can tell Climate Change is voodoo science is because higher temperatures must involve higher precipitation.
This is a direct consequence of the laws of physics, and it is unescapable.
Regional distribution of precipitation might change and some places could possibly become drier, but in general precipitation should increase everywhere.
You know, if you asked me to play a phrase-association game for Germans, the very last one I'd think of if I even thought of it at all would've been Morons of Expertise. And now here it is right at the top of the list. These worms and termites eating away at the foundations of my worldview are getting seriously annoying now.
This line caught my eye: "Since the eighteenth century, Germans have built an extensive system of dams and reservoirs to ensure that important arteries remain navigable for ship traffic, to store drinking water, to keep the supply to hydroelectric power plants constant and also – crucially – to control flooding." So, for over 200 years, our intellectuals wanted to build machines and structures to protect humans from a dangerous climate. Now come the Warmistas, who claim it's these pro-human actions that cause the climate to be hazardous. It's easy to see why they indulge this bizarre inversion when you realize that, unlike 200 years ago, their concern is not improving the welfare of humans but offering sacrifices to Gaia or some such. Which is the same thing as saying they hate humans.
Once again, I can´t help the feeling that more nefarious schemes are afoot. Consider the lovely Ahrtal. Why is it that our beloved rulers spent gazillions like there´s no tomorrow on jabs, masks, foreign wars and all these other well-known things, but failed to do anything serious about the destruction in the Ahrtal? The sums needed for the Ahrtal are basically a rounding error of the "Sondervermögen". This would´ve been an opportunity to score points with the public with relatively little money and still they - very noticeably - did not do that. If one were conspiratorially inclined, one could perhaps start thinking that it is in fact desired to create FUD about real estate outside the big cities. But surely there must be other, less outlandish explanations, must there be not?
The cult grows stronger by the day,as our gas and electricity bills soar, and some lucky folks in Fife have signed up for hydrogem supplies to their homes:
It would be great if we could laugh at the climate change zealots as they remain consistently wrong. However, their idiotic predictions so influence our not so useful idiots, the politicians and bureaucrats, that we keep damaging our food supply, water supply, and economy. If we don't stop them eventually it will mean damage beyond repair.
We had the same issue in my part of northwest England. Works on the reservoirs with automatic overflows installed resulted in erratic increases in river levels as the overflows dumped excess water in the rivers instead of holding it back. A FOI for the data after the 2015 floods showed exactly what you state here - chock full reservoirs. They "forgot" to mention the automatic overflows to the MP I had involved, so I pointed it out. Another smaller flood in 2020 concentrated minds. Anyway, the result is the large overflow has now been permanently blocked and extra capacity to handle storm water has now been installed in the sewage works half a mile from my house. Of course, their actions/inaction had no influence on the flooding at all, don't you know. And the work they have done is nothing to do with the recent flooding either.
The stupid thing is, this kind of thing happens with regularity every 4 years ( the last two were December 2015 and February 2020) because of El Nino. Nobody seems to have noticed that.
Still, we did make some difference even though the water company won't admit it.
> The newspapers do not write of global warming-induced drought anymore; instead, they are singing a new tune about “more frequent periods of prolonged flooding in future winters as a consequence of climate change.”
In my perfect fantasy world, I would force journalists to answer this question, and then hold them to account years later when they predictably broke their own word.
I would ask: Can you give me a list of five things that are definitely _not_ a consequence of climate change
I don't envy the dam operators, having to try to predict what will happen with the weather. They're damned if they do and damned if they don't.*
Nevertheless, as you point out in your last paragraph, not leaving any extra capacity at all smacks of politically-driven ideology.
* Yes, the sole reason for this comment is the opportunity to make that joke.
These subhumans are not ideologues, they're predators... and they're aiming their vicious knives at our throats.
Throughout human history, the causes of all famines stem not from adverse weather/crop outcomes, but from political policies that exaggerated their impacts. I would argue that precipitation mismanagement falls into the same category, with Mother Nature serving as the perennial scapegoat. Slightly off-topic, and sorry to direct traffic from eugyppius, but if you have not seen Carlson's interview with Professor Soon (posted yesterday), it is must-watch. Not only is Dr. Soon very amiable, but he skewers both the current Science™ establishment, and the entire notion of CO2 as having anything to do with the fantasy that mankind affects climate in any way. https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1744777758507504061
This last sentence is the killer keeper for all to distribute!!
"The dam operators, however, kept the spigots closed, because climate change is less a scientific finding than it is a political construct and a para-religious dogma, and as such it proves quite robust to petty things like empirical observations and simple prudence."
Excellent analysis. Nothing to add. Only that the engineers, with their fancy degrees, are uncapable of independent thinking and swallow the climate hoax hook, line and sinker.
CO2 has turned out to be one magical molecule. Drought? Climate change. Floods? Climate change. It's pure neurosis. Cold sweats, hot sweats...fingernail sensitivity!
Remember when that submersible, The Titan, was lost? Practically the entire submariner community tried to talk sense into the Ocean's Gate CEO, who airily dismissed the concerns about his vessel's seaworthiness by saying (paraphrased) "we don't want any of those experienced submariners because those are all old 50-year old white guys; we are smarter than those relics, and we have a brand new way of thinking, so we aren't going to listen to them, for they have nothing to tell us."
For how many centuries have the Germanic peoples used dams to control the waters? Doesn't matter. Now we have a new way of doing things, and the old ones are of no use to us now.
One way you can tell Climate Change is voodoo science is because higher temperatures must involve higher precipitation.
This is a direct consequence of the laws of physics, and it is unescapable.
Regional distribution of precipitation might change and some places could possibly become drier, but in general precipitation should increase everywhere.
You know, if you asked me to play a phrase-association game for Germans, the very last one I'd think of if I even thought of it at all would've been Morons of Expertise. And now here it is right at the top of the list. These worms and termites eating away at the foundations of my worldview are getting seriously annoying now.
This line caught my eye: "Since the eighteenth century, Germans have built an extensive system of dams and reservoirs to ensure that important arteries remain navigable for ship traffic, to store drinking water, to keep the supply to hydroelectric power plants constant and also – crucially – to control flooding." So, for over 200 years, our intellectuals wanted to build machines and structures to protect humans from a dangerous climate. Now come the Warmistas, who claim it's these pro-human actions that cause the climate to be hazardous. It's easy to see why they indulge this bizarre inversion when you realize that, unlike 200 years ago, their concern is not improving the welfare of humans but offering sacrifices to Gaia or some such. Which is the same thing as saying they hate humans.
Once again, I can´t help the feeling that more nefarious schemes are afoot. Consider the lovely Ahrtal. Why is it that our beloved rulers spent gazillions like there´s no tomorrow on jabs, masks, foreign wars and all these other well-known things, but failed to do anything serious about the destruction in the Ahrtal? The sums needed for the Ahrtal are basically a rounding error of the "Sondervermögen". This would´ve been an opportunity to score points with the public with relatively little money and still they - very noticeably - did not do that. If one were conspiratorially inclined, one could perhaps start thinking that it is in fact desired to create FUD about real estate outside the big cities. But surely there must be other, less outlandish explanations, must there be not?
In Barmy Blighty,the High Priest of Nut Zero has resigned in protest at HMG's approval of new drilling licences:
https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/01/10/chris-skidmore-and-the-scourge-of-the-tory-eco-zealots/
The cult grows stronger by the day,as our gas and electricity bills soar, and some lucky folks in Fife have signed up for hydrogem supplies to their homes:
https://www.hydrogeninsight.com/policy/long-suppressed-hydrogen-explosion-risk-report-and-video-released-after-ruling-from-uk-commissioner/2-1-1575932
I wonder whether we might soon witness a Nut Zero Big Bang, as hydrogen is a flammable gas.
As to the weather: torrential rain in December, but now very cold clear conditions dominate,as is often the case in British Januarys.
It would be great if we could laugh at the climate change zealots as they remain consistently wrong. However, their idiotic predictions so influence our not so useful idiots, the politicians and bureaucrats, that we keep damaging our food supply, water supply, and economy. If we don't stop them eventually it will mean damage beyond repair.
"climate change is less a scientific finding than it is a political construct and a parareligious dogma". exactly right.
We had the same issue in my part of northwest England. Works on the reservoirs with automatic overflows installed resulted in erratic increases in river levels as the overflows dumped excess water in the rivers instead of holding it back. A FOI for the data after the 2015 floods showed exactly what you state here - chock full reservoirs. They "forgot" to mention the automatic overflows to the MP I had involved, so I pointed it out. Another smaller flood in 2020 concentrated minds. Anyway, the result is the large overflow has now been permanently blocked and extra capacity to handle storm water has now been installed in the sewage works half a mile from my house. Of course, their actions/inaction had no influence on the flooding at all, don't you know. And the work they have done is nothing to do with the recent flooding either.
The stupid thing is, this kind of thing happens with regularity every 4 years ( the last two were December 2015 and February 2020) because of El Nino. Nobody seems to have noticed that.
Still, we did make some difference even though the water company won't admit it.
> The newspapers do not write of global warming-induced drought anymore; instead, they are singing a new tune about “more frequent periods of prolonged flooding in future winters as a consequence of climate change.”
In my perfect fantasy world, I would force journalists to answer this question, and then hold them to account years later when they predictably broke their own word.
I would ask: Can you give me a list of five things that are definitely _not_ a consequence of climate change