Father Thames drying out...
Posted: 4 Aug 2022, 10:26pm
No more symbolic gesture than to learn that the head of the Thames has dried up - for the first time...
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Father Thames drying out...
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Re: Father Thames drying out...
Posted: 4 Aug 2022, 11:54pm
The source of the Thames is usually dry, it was when I was there in 2016, they mean that it's dry for further down than ever before.
Re: Father Thames drying out...
Posted: 5 Aug 2022, 6:38am
In 76 the bed of the Thames cracked and next day Dennis Howell was appointed as Minister for Drought. At that time in S Wales we had had many weeks of water restrictions already. The 'Promised Land' suffers, then the government acts.simonineaston wrote: ↑4 Aug 2022, 10:26pm No more symbolic gesture than to learn that the head of the Thames has dried up - for the first time...
Al
Re: Father Thames drying out...
Posted: 5 Aug 2022, 6:51am
...and I'm just hearing on the radio that Thames Water's emergency desalination plant doesn't work and is unilkely to until next year - I imagine they'll announce that their ceo is due a massive bonus any day now!!
Re: Father Thames drying out...
Posted: 5 Aug 2022, 7:40am
If the bonus is related to the performace of this desalination plant perhaps the CEO's bonus should be paid in salt from it? 
Re: Father Thames drying out...
Posted: 5 Aug 2022, 7:52am
Yes, I was very disappointed, when I visited it many years ago, to see no sign of water.axel_knutt wrote: ↑4 Aug 2022, 11:54pmThe source of the Thames is usually dry, it was when I was there in 2016, they mean that it's dry for further down than ever before.
Apparently you now have to go about 5 miles "downstream" from the source before you see any water.
Re: Father Thames drying out...
Posted: 5 Aug 2022, 8:24am
Broad, sunlit uplands don't sound so great when it's 35° in the shade.al_yrpal wrote: ↑5 Aug 2022, 6:38amIn 76 the bed of the Thames cracked and next day Dennis Howell was appointed as Minister for Drought. At that time in S Wales we had had many weeks of water restrictions already. The 'Promised Land' suffers, then the government acts.simonineaston wrote: ↑4 Aug 2022, 10:26pm No more symbolic gesture than to learn that the head of the Thames has dried up - for the first time...
Al
Re: Father Thames drying out...
Posted: 5 Aug 2022, 9:19am
Sounds reasonable, under such stressful circumstances!simonineaston wrote: ↑5 Aug 2022, 6:51am ...and I'm just hearing on the radio that Thames Water's emergency desalination plant doesn't work and is unilkely to until next year - I imagine they'll announce that their ceo is due a massive bonus any day now!!
Re: Father Thames drying out...
Posted: 5 Aug 2022, 9:24am
Re: Father Thames drying out...
Posted: 5 Aug 2022, 9:27am
He was surprisingly effective, as I remember.
I fear that even appointing a special minister would be unable to halt the Climate Catastrophe.In the last week of August 1976, during Britain's driest summer in over 200 years, he was made Minister for Drought (but nicknamed 'Minister for Rain').[4] Howell was charged by the Prime Minister with the task of persuading the nation to use less water, and was even ordered by No.10 to do a rain dance on behalf of the nation.[5] Howell responded by inviting reporters to his home in Moseley, where he revealed he was doing his bit to help water rationing by sharing baths with his wife, Brenda.[5] Days later, heavy rainfall caused widespread flooding, and he became known as "Minister for Floods".[6][7] Then, during the harsh winter of 1978–1979 he was appointed Minister for Snow.[8] [9]
https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... me-weather
Re: Father Thames drying out...
Posted: 5 Aug 2022, 11:26am
Ah yes - I remember when government ministers were decent, hard-working individuals who put the country first...
Re: Father Thames drying out...
Posted: 5 Aug 2022, 1:29pm
Mike Sales wrote: ↑5 Aug 2022, 9:27am
I fear that even appointing a special minister would be unable to halt the Climate Catastrophe.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... me-weather
Well, the government is intending building a new nuclear power station a few metres above sea level on a sandy shore, to be cooled with a pipeline delivering water from a river in the next county.
Perhaps they (and the French engineers for Sizewell C) don't believe a climate catastrophe is happening, or in the offing?
Sure, they intend to build a defence wall and drainage swale (above and beyond requirements, the drainage swale
) which should cope with a once in ten thousand year storm. Now I seem to remember the experts saying we should expect many more "1 in a" weather events...