22nd July 2007

Green comment on some of the worst flooding experienced by the country. After two days of havoc in travel on the roads, rail and air the largest clean-up in peacetime begins. 16 rivers remain on flood warning and many thousands of homes and businesses have been flooded: many are without water and/or electricity.

Photo: Paddington Station reopened on Saturday after closing due to floods

See also Molly Scott Catos' call for stronger communities here

Photo: forecast possible effects of flooding brought on by climate change if we do nothing to tackle it.

Cllr Philip Booth, a Stroud District Green party member who was returning from a national Green party councillors conference in London spent 7 hours, 5 trains and 3 buses getting back yesterday. Commenting on the floods and travel chaos he said: "Many people have faced horrendous journeys and worse still seen their homes and businesses flooded. The message of these rains could not be clearer - decisive, effective action to reduce climate change is needed now along with action to prepare properly for flooding which looks set to get even worse in the future.  While the other parties want to carry on building roads and subsiding more and more air travel, the Greens are the only party that will set tough targets to reduce climate pollution year after year."

Philip Booth noted that some of his fellow travellers had experienced much worse journeys like one man who spent 26 hours trying to travel from London to Cheltenham. He had had to sleep in Paddington station that also saw shops flooded.

Philip Booth added: "Our government has been a leader in rhetoric on climate change, but an extraordinary failure in terms of policy. Extremes of climate are only set to get worse and will increasingly severely damage economies. We know what we have to do. We must make deep cuts in emissions: a managed mass withdrawal from fossil fuels, no less. This is nothing short of a war, but instead of tanks we need clean energy. Sweden for example has a plan to get out of oil within 15 years. It is possible but we must have leadership from our government."

Green Party Principal Speaker Dr. Derek Wall said: "Climate change will lead to more extreme weather rather than simply warming Britain. We are under taking a huge experiment with the climate, this must  stop, the dangers are simply too great. Flooding, storms, damage to buildings, the transport network and  other elements of the infrastructure will grow."

Derek Wall added: "Government failure to prepare for the flooding is matched by   government failure to tackle the causes of climate change.  On the one hand the government is encouraging the building of new houses on flood plains, on the other it is expanding Heathrow and our motorway network. We need to cut CO2 by 90 per cent in the next few decades. At present Britain is neither cutting greenhouse gases nor  prepaparing to deal with the consequences of climate change. It is like a Doctor would will neither prevent nor attempt to cure an illness. We must stop building on flood plains, invest in flood protection  but above all, cut back on the expansion of roads, airports and new  fossil fuel power stations. Greens at a local level are fighting climate change in practical  ways, but only national and international action will end further climate chaos."

See also Philip's blog for 22/07/07 here for local landslide in Ruscombe.