The country, is has been argued, is falling apart. The rail system is in
tatters. Farms are closing every day. And the worst floods for a generation have
devastated towns and villages across the country.
While we might yet home and rail and agriculture might be saved, new scientific
findings provide horrible new evidence that the floods which have so beleaguered our
communities, are here to stay.
Global warming has been identified as the chief mischief maker in our recent
calamities, but it is only now becoming clear exactly why it is having this effect. For
the last few years it has been assumed that the change in the planets temperature had
disrupted weather patterns, and melted the ice caps, thereby raising sea level and making
floods more common. Terrifyingly, it seems that this may only be part of the picture.
Since the early nineties, reports of melting icecaps and disappearing permafrost have
been rife. It is only not, however, that the true impact of that liquification is becoming
known. It is the type of water held in the ice caps that is the case of our problems.
It has long been assumed that water, kept frozen for many aeons, will retain all the
qualities of standard H2O. But recent findings have shown that water, like many
things on this earth, has learned to evolve. What this has meant in practise is that
water, kept for many years locked into a glacier, changes it nature. While appearing
identical to ordinary water, and freezing and melting at the same temperatures, it seems
this new water, so recently released into the water cycle, evaporates slightly higher up
the Celsius scale. This new water turns to steam a full three Celsius later than normal
water.
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The knock on effect of this is obvious. While the
water will still eventually evaporate and join the water cycle, it re-condenses into rain
far more readily, causing rain storms where before there were showers. This is the simple
cause of the unique weather Britain has suffered in the last few months.
To make matters worse, once the water has fallen,
it takes far, far greater a time to evaporate again. The water table rises, floods occur
and take an age to recede.
Even more alarmingly, it seems that when this water mixes with native water, then the
new evaporation qualities apply. So the longer we wait to rectify this situation, the
worse it will get.
"Catching immigrant water is obviously very difficult," Dr Peter Krichtabarr,
Research Fellow from the University of Salted Herring, explains. "It doesn’t
want to stay in the area in which it has evolved - the conditions there are harsh, the
water cycle more static. Here it can flourish, stay in fluid form most of the year, with
the occasional heatwave to allow it to travel to other parts of the country and
contaminate more rivers, more lakes."
So what can be done?
"All water entering the country must be kept in quarantine," explains
Krichtabarr. "Vast pans must be built across the country, and all water must be
tested, and its purity assessed, before being allowed into the water cycle."
I put it to Dr Krichtabarr that this would be both difficult and expensive. "Of
course it will. Where would the fun be if it wasn't?"
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