In België (althans Vlaanderen) ziet het er al enkele weken heel vredig uit, tot je plotsklaps een stortbad over je krijgt waardoor zelfs je sokken niet droog blijven, dit een paar keer per dag.
In Groot-Brittannië is op 24 uur tijd evenveel regen uit de lucht gevallen dan normaal gezien in twee maanden.
In Zwitserland, Oostenrijk en Duitsland vielen doden door noodweer.
In Zuid- en Oost-Europa (Griekenland, Roemenië, Italië, Bulgarije, Montenegro, vallen doden, ontstaan bosbranden en problemen met het drinkwater door de extreem hoge temperaturen.
Wat verder van huis (Bangladesh, India, China, Pakistan) vielen meer dan honderd doden door moessonregens, overstromingen en hun gevolgen.
Dit zijn slechts puntmetingen en hun wetenschappelijke waarde is nul ja. Maar ik hou al jaren dit soort nieuws bij (
), en tegenwoordig moet ik op een dag zoveel copy-pasten als ik vroeger op een maand moet doen. Ik geloof niet dat het enkel om betere rapportering van de rampen gaat.
The rising tide of flood coverage
Those of you paying close attention to the news may have noticed that the UK is experiencing
some inclement weather. One-sixth of the annual rainfall fell in just 24 hours, causing massive flooding. Sheffield has been particularly hard-hit, with dramatic scenes of
cars almost submerged,
people being rescued by helicopter, and sadly several deaths. Several areas of South Yorkshire have now been evacuated, because of fears that
the Ulley Dam could burst. (The BBC has produced a handy map of the affected region, see left.)
According to some climate researchers,
rainfall is likely to increase as a result of global warming, and extreme weather events
will become more frequent. It may be that floods like these will become more common in the UK in years to come. So perhaps this week's events will serve as a wake-up call. In particular, it may be a good idea to build
fewer houses on flood plains.
Personally I find it a little disconcerting that the media is quite so excited about these floods, dramatic though they are by British standards. In recent days, heavy rain in Pakistan has left more than 200 dead and now a
cyclone is exacerbating the situation. Heavy rains in Bangladesh in the past fortnight
led to mudslides, killing over 100 people. Although this was reported in the West, it received nothing like the same level of attention.
It is a reality that local events have more "news value" than distant events whether you live in a rich or poor part of the world. But it does seem that floods and similar disasters generally get more attention if they happen in a developed country; take the coverage of Hurricane Katrina. If they take place in developing countries, they are regarded as unremarkable and to be expected. What do you think?
And if anyone can explain one consequence of the floods, I'd be grateful: Although the southeast received little rain, trains from London to Cambridge and Peterborough were severely delayed or cancelled. I know this because I was waiting for one, in a failed bid to get to Cambridge in time to go... to a barbecue.
Michael Marshall, online editorial assistant
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/