EVEN IN THE MOST DEVASTATED BRAZILIAN BIOME, THE ATLANTIC FOREST, NEW SPECIES OF THE FAUNA ARE DISCOVERED!!!

[Reproduced from www.estadao.com.br]

New species of tiny frog discovered in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil.

The already splendid Atlantic Forest biodiversity has become a bit more rich and colorful, with the addition of a new species of amphibian to the list: a tiny orange frog, smaller than a 10 cent coin, who lives in the hills of the Serra do Mar (920m above sea level, in the Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar, in the borders of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states)  and was baptized by the scientists of Brachycephalus crispus.

The name of the genus, Brachycephalus, meaning "small head"; while the species name, crispus, makes reference to the rough skin of the back of the tiny frog. It measures less than 2cm and looks like a little orange jelly bean!

The official description of the species was published online  by the journal Herpetologica: http://migre.mehYtH. The main author is the biologist Thais Condez, Unesp Rio Claro, São Paulo state, student of professor Celio Haddad, an expert in the study of amphibians in Brazil.

Several other species of this frog were studied by Thais Condez, in an expedition carried out in 2012 (complete report in the "Estadão":  http://blogs.estadao.com.br/herton-escobar/reportagem-especial-sapos-miniatura/.

POLITICAL POLICING IN UK??? THE ANTI-FRACKING PROTESTERS CASE

FRACKING:

SO WHAT IS IT?

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas inside.

[Reproduced from THE ECOLOGIST]

This is political policing, re-enforced with overt aggression - what took place today appears to be political policing in favour of a corporate agenda.

After the District Judge had declared Barton Moss Road a public footpath (see here), and the successful blockade of the iGas delivery lorries on Thursday (see here), today came the brutal backlash from Greater Manchester Police and its Tactical Aid Unit (TAU).

This morning, a convoy of lorries delivering to the iGas exploratory drilling site arrived as notices were posted on cars and handed out to the public declaring ...

 

---

To Whom It May Concern

Please note that Barton Moss Road the A57 to Tunnel Farm is owned by Manchester Ship Canal Developments Limited and beyond that point by Peel Investments North Ltd and there is no right to occupy Barton Moss Road without the consent of the owners.

The only public right over Barton Moss Road is a footpath for pedestrians any persons occupying or possessing Barton Moss Road are doing so as trespassers without the consent of the owners and should cease such occupation.

---

 

Unsigned ... who published it?

The notice had no headed notepaper or signature, but appeared to be a manoeuvre in the face of the GMP's court defeat last Thursday, to arrest anyone not complying with the notice for "aggravated trespass". Greater Manchester Police constantly warned people of this throughout the day.

Peel Holdings, or the Peel Group, not only own Barton Moss Road but all the fields surrounding it, including the iGas drilling site, and Barton Airport where the police are based during operations, drawing rent off all of them.

It now appears that the company - stuffed with vested interests - is preparing to evict anti-fracking campaigners.

All hell broke loose

As the lorry convoy approached the entrance to the iGas site this morning, accompanied by huge numbers of police, all hell broke loose with Tactical Aid Unit officers literally running riot according to eye witnesses ...

"While there was a protector on the roof of one of the wagons, a police officer said one of the guys had called him 'a dickhead', so they read him his rights and the police went into the field to arrest him, pushed him to the floor and handcuffed him", says photographer Jason Smalley 

"Two other protectors were trying to protect him so they got chased and pushed to the floor.

"I was shooting a video of it, and I got pushed really hard onto the floor. They said they thought I was going to assault the officer ... The police were being really aggressive, there was a woman fitting in the field while they were handcuffing her ... "

They tried to strangle her

Another eye witness, Diane Steels, says ... "Vanda is a mother of four, they tried to strangle her and they were just hitting everybody. It was chaos... horrendous once the Tactical Aid Unit had come in. I was scared. Everyone was scared. We were just running because they were chasing everyone.

" ... Earlier, they pushed us and bullied us down the road. They have damaged my knee, they were just kicking us in the back of the legs so we couldn't physically walk any faster, and then it kicked off in the field because someone swore and it escalated from there."

Jason's photos show a police officer with his hands around Vanda's neck, then handcuffing her and then, with another officer, dragging her through the field. The end of his video clearly shows that she is having a fit (see the video on YouTube - click here).

Legal observers barred from 'crime scene'

While this was happening, police officers had sealed off Barton Moss Road from the public, declaring it a "crime scene". As well as the public and the Salford Star reporter, Lindsay, an impartial legal observer, was also prevented from having access ...

"I got a call from the Camp to come because of aggressive policing by Greater Manchester Police Tactical Aid Unit" said Lindsay.

"I've been prevented from doing my job as an impartial legal observer. I'm not part of this protest, I just make statements of arrest in case the arrestees need a witness statement to assist them with any future court cases or action. They have refused my entry onto a public footpath."

By the time the public footpath was open and people made their way to the iGas site entrance, Vanda was still lying on the floor with no ambulance in sight and even one of the protectors, who was a trained nurse, was refused access to tend her ... "I'm disgusted", she said.

"We called an ambulance and there wasn't one available", a Police Liaison Officer told theSalford Star. "We are not willing to move her and can't go into the circumstances of that. We are waiting for the ambulance to come and they will take control of the situation."

After 45 minutes an ambulance arrived and took her to Salford Royal Hospital, where, we understand, she was "de-arrested".

Political policing, re-enforced with overt aggression

On the scene was the Camp's lead solicitor, Simon Pook of Robert Lizar Solicitors, who is also a legal observer:

"What I have witnessed today at Barton Moss has confirmed my greatest fear ... A fear that Greater Manchester Police appear to have discarded the European Convention of Human Rights into the gutter, and replaced it with political policing, re-enforced with overt aggression."

"My experience there today caused me to be concerned for my own safety, based on my observations and interactions of Greater Manchester Police. I am firmly of the view that what took place today appears to be political policing in favour of a corporate agenda. 

I call on GMP and the Police and Crime Commissioner to tell the public: Why?"

UN - strong representations made to UK Government

Speaking of the police closing off Barton Moss Road to reporters and legal observers he added that he intends to contact the United Nations about the policing of Barton Moss.

"The United Nations Special Rapporteur of peaceful protest has made strong representation to the UK Government in regards to not allowing legal observers to come through and observe the police in an individual capacity" he explained.

"The UK government said they would consider that report, which was produced in July 2013. From what I've seen today that doesn't seem to be the case.

"I'm happy to update the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations in regards to a full report on Barton Moss and the GMP conduct and that's something that I intend to do."

 

---

 

This article was first published by the Salford Star, which has been diligent in reporting the Barton Moss protests fairly and impartially since the beginning of the demonstrations. Also on the page, more photos and reader comments.

Main photo: Jason Smalley

 

 

OLYMPICS: CAN IT BE HARMFUL TO NATURE?? ASK THE ECOLOGISTS IN RUSSIA!!!

The winter Olympics at Sochi have trashed the National Park that contains Russia's richest biodiversity, writes Igor Chestin. Worse, the gutting of key environmental laws means that it can happen all over again, and again.

[Reproduced from The Ecologist]

Construction waste from the Sochi Winter Olympics construction is dumped in the Mzympta River. Photo: SochiWatch.

The IOC has provided tacit backing to the organisers' rampage through the delicate and diverse ecology of the Caucasus.

The reports from Sochi’s newly built hotels and Olympic Village have not painted their construction in the best light, with tales of doors that wouldn't open, yellow drinking water, and collapsing fixtures and fittings.

Unfortunately, the situation doesn’t look any better on the environmental front.

In fact the most symbolic failure of the 2014 Winter Olympics came before even a brick was laid, when the government decided to host the games inside the Sochi National Park.

The greatest biodiversity in Russia

This is a region that contains the greatest species diversity of anywhere in Russia and is encompassed by a UNESCO World Heritage area.

It is also a poor decision from a tourism perspective. The planners have built infrastructure for more than 100,000 people, but the valley of the Mzyma River can accommodate no more than 30,000 people at a time.

There simply aren’t enough slopes for such a massive skiing resort. This gratuitous sacrifice of nature would be comical if its implications weren’t quite as tragic.

Laws re-written to permit gross environmental damage

When the planning for the games began, it was illegal to organise large scale sporting events within the National Park. But by 2006 these laws were amended, along with a few others.

In 2007 the Russian government abolished compulsory environmental assessment and oversight for construction projects. In December 2009, the State Duma approved changes to the Forest Code that allowed the logging of rare species of trees and shrubs, in order to speed Olympic construction.

These changes to legislation are guaranteed to have a long lasting impact on our ability to protect the environment in Russia.

These amendments, made for a single event, will most certainly allow the exploitation and degradation of the environment to continue entirely legally for years to come.

No plans to reduce impacts on endangered species

Following a similar comically grotesque trend, the Sochi games' organisers failed to carry out a survey for their construction sites.

Absurdly, the official reports on the areas that would become the 'mountain cluster' of winter sports facilities mention that dolphins and pelicans reside there.

No plans were made to relocate or mitigate the effects upon these species the report claimed were there. A lack of reliable initial surveys means we might never discover the full extent of the environmental damage.

Unnecessary highway trashes animal migration routes

The most environmentally damaging construction was the joint highway-railway routefrom the Adler district of Sochi by the coast to Krasnaya Polyana in the mountains.

The River Mzymta used to be a spawning area for roughly 20% of endangered Black Sea population of Atlantic Salmon. Now, no more salmon come up the river due to pollution and destruction of spawning sites by streamlining the river bed.

Some migration routes used by bears and ibex  were also destroyed - and for what? The road itself is a wasteful extravagance, which could have been easily avoided by simply repairing and widening the existing road.

Over 3 thousand hectares of rare forests  with large numbers of Taxus and Buxus, were logged. Ungulate hibernation sites on Psekhako Mountain Ridge - used in particular by red deer and wild boar - were destroyed. Migration routes of bears and turs (goat-antilope) the Aibga Mountain Range were uprooted and destroyed.

The zero-budget rehabilitation project

Relative to previous Olympic venues, the games in Sochi were all but guaranteed to inflict greater environmental damage simply because there is so much more environment to damage compared to those events in or around major cities.

That said, the Russian government has failed to meet even the most reasonable expectations. From the start of the construction planning it was clear that significant damage to the environment was unavoidable.

So in 2012, the organisers agreed to support the rehabilitation works once Games were over. Costing around 1 billion rubles (US$ 30 million), the program was developed in 2012 by leading Russian scientists and international experts from IUCN and UNEP.

But the support ended when the programme was approved - with zero budget!

Eco-dissenters prosecuted

In fact, far from supporting environmental protection, Sochi 2014 seems to be actively prosecuting those who speak out in its defence. In the days immediately before the opening ceremony, the overt repression and harassment of local activists escalated.

Suren Gazaryan, a member of the Environmental Watch of Northern Caucasus, was forced to flee from the country and seek political asylum in the EU.

Another local activist and journalist, Evgeny Vitishko, had his probation period extended to a three year prison sentence, causing protests from Amnesty International. More than seven others have also been arrested.

The UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) played a very positive role in the course of preparation for the games, carrying out regular assessments and reporting back to the Russian government.

The IOC - is it bothered?

But only in a few cases did Olympic organisers take any action based on these reports and recommendations. For example, the bobsleigh, biathlon and mountain Olympic village were relocated from the originally proposed site in a very sensitive part of the national park.

In contrast, the International Olympic Committee has never seriously looked into any concerns raised by environmentalists, providing tacit backing to the organisers' rampage through the delicate and diverse ecology of the Caucasus.

In Sochi, the IOC has demonstrated that the only things that matter are image and money.

 

---

 

Igor Chestin is and Academician at Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and director ofWWF Russia, which receives funding from international WWF groups, Russian corporate sponsorship, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, individual donations and other NGOs.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

See also: WWF Russia's Statement on the Sochi Olympics.

 

TOXOPLASMA IN BELUGA WHALES

Native innuits over potentially dangerous parasite as whale meat is an important part of their diet.

[Reproduced from The Independent, London]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/killer-cat-parasite-spreads-to-arctic-toxoplasma-found-in-beluga-whales-9127460.html

ANTS IN THE AMAZON: JOINING FORCES TO SAVE THEIR QUEEN DURING FLOODS

http://youtu.be/A042J0IDQK4

During floods, ants make " lifeboat" and carry the queen to a safe place.

PEOPLE OF AMAZON: HOW THEY LIVE IN THE FOREST EXPLOITING ITS RESOURCES AND PRESERVING IT

http://youtu.be/caangO_5BKo

Access the link above to watch a simple way some people live sustainably in Amazon.

BIOLOGICAL RESERVE IN BRAZIL: NO PRIORITY, NO RESOURCES. JUST TRAGEDIES!!!

[Reproduced from www.oeco.com.br]

"Poço das Antas":  the head of this Biological Reserve says he is tired!

Poço das Antas is the first  biological reserve of Brazil. It is the habitat of the Golden Lion Tamarin, the sloth, and other important species of the fauna and flora of the Atlantic forest. It has a historical and symbolic value in conservation struggle and home to one of the most important works integrated to save a species from extinction, the Golden Lion Tamarin, the Olympic Mascot candidate.

Brazil is a world power in biodiversity. The country currently has outstanding visibility, either by major sporting events, either by the vitality of its economy and its social contradictions. Rio de Janeiro is a great showcase of Brazil. A fire at its most symbolic reserve cannot be justified by the bureaucrats only as one more fatality caused by the heat or by an unsuspecting farmer.

Saturday, February 08. In the second and decisive day of the fire, Gustavo Luna Pandey, the Chief of the reserve, mobilized competently to combat the fire with a group of volunteers. About 25 men, some employees of partner institutions, friends, ex-components of staff ... The Poço das Antas biological reserve has no fire brigade at this time of year due to lack of resources. It is  normally expected more rain in summer. But it's not the first summer that the reserve has this same problem.

The Chico Mendes Institute, ICMBio, which administers the federal budget is in trouble. In the Reserve  there was no fire brigade nor any special scheme. REBIO ["Reserva Biológica] phone was cut two months ago and it was used the one of the AMLD (Golden Lion Tamarin Association). The State Agency claimed difficulties as well, in other parks. The head of the Reserve did a lot more than he could, in the face of so much uncertainty. The firemen came 48 hours later. There was no material conditions or training for those men.

It is possible that the images of bodies of capybaras, sloths, coatis and many burned trees are quickly forgotten by all of us, on the speed of the internet. It is not possible to see so many authorities circulating in official vehicles, parading by helicopter, our technical colleagues performing many important meetings around the world, but we won't be able to extinguish a fire with minimal professionalism!

[Unfortunately, the Poço das Antas reserve will probably no more count on the care of such competent and dedicated professional]

SALMON ITINERANT LIFECYCLE: MORTALITY RATES INCREASING AT SEA WITH ANOMALOUS HIGH TEMPERATURES

Wild salmon starve at sea as North Atlantic warms

Chris Todd

[From The Ecologist, 8th February 2014]

The migrations of wild salmon over thousands of kilometres are an enduring mystery, writes Chris Todd - as are the reasons for a steep and alarming decline in salmon weight, fat and overall condition.

For us to effectively conserve salmon stocks for the future it is critical to fully understand why our salmon are currently suffering so, in rivers and at sea.

It is an enduring mystery how juvenile salmon, at 12cm long and weighing perhaps only 20g, can leave a Scottish river in springtime, undertake a sojourn of thousands of kilometres around the North Atlantic, and return between one and four years later to their rivers to spawn.

This is for good reason. A returning salmon, known as a grilse, will have grown 100-fold in size from the rich feeding to be found at sea.

But the journey is not without risk. Between 80-90% of grilse, and fewer still multi-winter fish, will not survive their journey.

Salmon mortality at sea has risen sharply

But the serious problems wild salmon now face at sea go beyond the hardships of their itinerant lifecycle. These have been intensively researched throughout Europe and North America, and it's clear that in recent decades salmon mortality rates at sea have increased enormously.

While possible causes include natural predation, disease and parasites, or being caught up in fishery by-catch, the truth is we just don't know.

My research, in collaboration with Marine Scotland Science, has focused not on mortality rates and population decline, but on the changes in size and quality of salmon returning to Scottish rivers over the past 50 years.

This variation seems to stem from the effects of climate change on the ocean, and theanomalously high temperatures salmon find in the North Atlantic.

And the salmon are getting smaller

In 2008 we published a study of quality, or condition factor, of adult salmon returning to Scotland between 1993-2006. This was measured by dividing the observed weight by the expected weight for a fish of that length.

The skinny fish, top, is less than its expected weight by more than a quarter (26%), while the bottom fish is illustrative of the long-term norm, being only 4% underweight for its length.

 

The plankton diet isn't working for them. Photo: Chris Todd

Some individual salmon return in spectacularly good condition, perhaps by chance finding areas of rich feeding. But far more common in recent years are less well nourished salmon showing poor growth.

Examining extensive salmon records dating back to 1963, we can see the long-term pattern.

Since 2006, condition poor and little improvement

Between 1963-1993 there was nothing unusual. During the late 1990s the average condition increased to a high in 1997, but then fell precipitously until 2006.

Salmon anglers in Scotland recall 2006 as the "year of skinny grilse" - understandably so, because that year's salmon were not only in poor condition but also unusually short.

Since 2006 the average salmon length of salmon has increased slightly but the average condition factor is consistently low, fluctuating around at least 7% below average.

The data up to 2013 show no signs of improvement. For example, between 1997-2010 the average weight of grilse returning to the River North Esk in east Scotland fell by 29% from 2.35kg to 1.67kg.

And for summer-returning salmon that stayed at sea for two winters the average has plummeted from 6.18kg to only 3.63kg.

Rising ocean temperatures and fat loss

Clearly, salmon are currently having a tough time of it at sea. Warming of the North Atlantic is exerting an indirect effect on the fish, as rising temperatures change the abundance and quality of the plankton salmon feed upon.

These major, climate-related shifts in oceanic plankton are well documented throughout the North Atlantic.

But this is more problematic still for salmon, as they stop feeding before re-entering the river and then starve themselves while swimming upstream, relying entirely on stored fats to survive the months ahead before their autumn spawning.

We've found that, at the point the re-entry to the river, the skinniest salmon, as much as a third underweight, have up to 80% less fat reserves than the norm, with obvious implications for their chance of survival and reproduction.

A dismal prospect for wild salmon

Taken together, this presents a rather dismal prospect for wild salmon. Many fish are returning smaller, skinnier and with lower fat reserves than in the past. Smaller fish produce fewer eggs, and their lack of fat reserves probably means they are of poorer quality.

The next generation of juvenile smolts that arise from spawnings migrate to sea and encounter North Atlantic waters that are persistently warmer and food-poor.

The concern is that this might comprise a downward spiral for wild salmon.

Pragmatically, there is not a great deal that fishery managers can do to alleviate the salmon's problems at sea. And in fairness salmon anglers are increasingly aware of conservation needs; catch and release is widely practiced on most salmon rivers in Scotland.

Salmon rescue starts in the river

But we can manage freshwater habitats to maximise survival and spawning success of those salmon that do return to our rivers, and of juveniles prior to their journey to sea.

As an ecologist, I am endlessly curious as to how salmon are able to migrate such distances across the ocean, with no prior experience, parental guidance or SatNav - although part of me actually hopes we never do unravel this intriguing migration mystery.

But for us to effectively conserve salmon stocks for the future it is critical to fully understand why our salmon are currently suffering so, in rivers and at sea, and to do all we can to maximise the production of juveniles.

This approach might be considered as 'lambs to the slaughter', but over millions of years salmon have survived ice ages and eras of global warming. Helping salmon populations recover naturally is clearly a better strategy than rearing them artificially.

 

---

Chris Todd is Professor of Marine Ecology at University of St Andrews. He receives funding from the European Commission, the Atlantic Salmon Trust, the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards for Scotland, and the Fishmongers Company.

This article was originally published at The Conversation. Read the original article.

 

PREVENTION ON LEADING WITH FLOOD: IT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE, EVEN IN THE "FIRST WORLD"!!!

[Reproduced from The Ecologist]

  

A flooded home, recently built, at Severn Stoke, Worcester. Photo: Dave Throup.

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The inconvenient truth: houses built on floodplains could flood

Karen Potter

4th February 2014

Somerset is experiencing its most significant flooding in decades. As the political right calls for ever more dredging, Karen Potter trawls Defra's archives ... and finds a shocking history of sound policy sacrificed to short term political expediency.

Ministers should be applauded for recognising that there's simply no way we could tell the thousands desperate for a decent home, that we can't build any more new homes because of concerns about flood plains.

Commentators fixate on dredging rivers, or more sustainablyplanting trees, orreintroducing beavers as the solution to prevent more homes from being flooded.

But those with longer memories may cast them back to 2007, when much of central and southwestern England was underwater from some of the worst flooding in living memory.

Communities Minister Eric Pickles might like to consider the inconvenient truth of his own words in 2007 while in opposition. Following the floods, he said in response to Labour's housing strategy that:

"if you build houses on flood plains it increases the likelihood that people will be flooded".

A flood of water and bad ideas

As the still-beleaguered residents of the Somerset levels will recall, the floods of 2007 followed the wettest May, June and July since records began in 1766.

The airwaves and newspapers were similarly awash with opinion in response to the government's ambitious plans to build 3 million new homes by 2020. Inevitably, it was said, so long as the proper defences were in place, some of these new homes would be built on floodplains.

David Orr of the National Housing Federation lavished praise on the policy on BBC News: 

"Ministers should be applauded for recognising that there's simply no way we could tell the thousands of key workers and low income families, desperate for a decent home, that we can't build any more new homes because of concerns about flood plains."

The cost - $3 billion top insurers alone

The cost of 2007's wettest-ever summer? 7,000 businesses and 48,000 homes were flooded in the South West, Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside, prompting 120,000 household insurance claims, 27,000 commercial claims at a £3bn overall cost to insurers.

The subsequent inquiry led by Sir Michael Pitt published its review the following summer. It found that around 10% of properties in England were located on floodplains, with 11% of new homes since 2000 built in flood hazard areas, and 16,000 dwellings since 2006 built in high flood risk areas.

Roughly a quarter of properties flooded in summer 2007 had been built in the last 25 years. This, the review pointed out, emphasised the vital importance of strong planning controls and well-informed planning decisions.

Turquoise belts - a great idea but where are they?

Realising there needed to be a balance between development needs and flood risk, the idea of "environmental limits" was discussed within Defra.

In putting "the green back into the Green Belt" as then environment secretary David Miliband said, this stressed the importance of the ecosystems approach.

For example, planting urban woodland improves biodiversity and wildlife, provides a degree of flood control, renewable wood to offset climate change, and attractive environments for exercise and recreation.

Strips of planted green space alongside city river banks are cheaper than expensive concrete barriers, and provide a fall-back area, a 'turquoise belt', that could be flooded without great risk or expense, and also provide for leisure and biodiversity at the same time.

Recommendations made

Of the 90 recommendations in Pitt's review, two clearly stated there should be a presumption against building in high risk areas. This was in accordance with the government's planning policy on flood risk, known as PPS25.

The review also called for the effectiveness of PPS25 and the Environment Agency's powers to challenge development to be kept under review, and strengthened if necessary.

Another recommendation stated that Defra, the Environment Agency, and Natural England should establish through Catchment Flood Management Plans a programme that would find a way of working with, rather than against, natural processes.

No backsliding? If only ...

These approaches, which included setting back river defences and relocating buildings if necessary, were considered particularly important in the face of the predicted increase in river flow levels.

Flood risk had to be managed co-operatively between local authorities, the Environment Agency and developers, in a more sustainable way and also as a means to provide more attractive places to live.

Newspaper editorials at the time called for there to be "no backsliding on commitments to be better prepared in future" and that there should be "no cherry-picking of the Pitt recommendations for quick political gain in the run-up to a general election."

Recommendations ignored

But a general election later, in 2012, prime minister David Cameron is pledging to "cut through the dither" that is holding Britain in "paralysis".

Moreover he has brought forward by contentious measures to relax rules on planning applications with an eye to boosting growth, and providing 75,000 new homes.

The National Planning Policy Framework is proclaimed "simple", and had reduced planning policy from more than 1,000 pages to under 100 - said to pave the way for swifter, clearer decisions.

Not such good news for the insurers

Otto Thoresen, director-general of the The Association of British Insurers, expressed immediate concern that the framework could lead to greater inappropriate development in flood risk areas, something that the current "rigorous planning system" was a bulwark against.

The result, he predicted, would not be the "stimulation of the economy", but "misery for people when their homes are flooded".

The National Flood Forum's chairman, Charles Tucker, similarly argued that the new framework "has, at a stroke, scrapped the carefully constructed raft of technical guidance, context and definitions built up over years" for flood protection.

Dredging - the fixation continues

Dredging as a solution was raised following the Cumbria floods of 2009, to whichProfessor Colin Thorne, fluvial geomorphologist at the University of Nottingham, responded that floods caused by a huge amounts of rainfall cannot be entirely prevented.

Constantly dredging rivers and clearing vegetation to do so would be unsustainably expensive, financially, socially and in terms of biodiversity and habitat loss.

It is clear to see, reflecting back on the floods of 2007 (and those in 2005 and 2009), the lack of integration and disjointed policy across the two central government departments has still not been resolved seven years later.

The fixation with dredging continues, and David Cameron has called for dredging to startas soon as possible, reversing previous statements that it would be little help.

The answer lies in the archives

Perhaps instead if the media turned their attention to dredging the Defra archives, they'd find the 'inconvenient truth' of floodplain development - that houses built on floodplains could flood - a truth currently lying buried in the sediments of their own filing cabinets.

 

---

 

Karen Potter is a Lecturer in Planning at University of Liverpool. She receives funding from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), Welsh Government and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

This article was originally published at The Conversation. Read the original article.

 

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