on another thread, this is what I mean by complexity:An example from this morning, I was talking to a friend who happens to be a farmer, pro Brexit, and pretty much a climate change denier this morning about recent floods. We ended up having a heated 30 minute argument on the topic as his view is that the floods are a direct result of the EA not clearing channels thereby curtailing the flow. As far as he's concerned a waterways only job is to dump surplus water into the sea as fast as possible.
He used to be a tutor at an ag college, he has some kind of degree in farmimg. He absolutely categorically knows from his time as a student that there is much more to the issue of flooding than merely the restriction of flow, he knows about nitrogen runoff, soil erosion, riverine ecosystems blah blah blah
BUT he in order to defend his view that climate change is not a thing chooses to view the issue of flooding in a single dimension. He is 100% committed to this view and cannot veer even a few degrees to the left or right of his view.
Now this is someone that really should know better, so what about all those people that have no need in normal life to know anything about the complexities of managing waterways whilst mitigating flood risk?
If someone who one would assume knows at least something about the topic so directly attributes blame to a single issue then I guess a lay person would think that they have a point.
Whilst there's always been an element of this social media has channelled what consumers are fed in their news stream. My friend has in the last few years, eschewed mainstream media in favour of Facebook groups and Twitter. As I say this somoeone who attended uni and spent decades teaching at one.
There is no simple answer to the question of flooding, what it needs is for river systems to be looked at holistically, including abstraction and discharges considering all of the desired outcomes and balancing them with available resources over a considerable timeframe.
Sorting our rivers out will take decades IF some fucker can be bothered to do it, there are no short term gains that any government can demonstrate within a single term.
So, what do we think is going to happen? Maybe some flood defences for Tenbury Wells whilst we carry on allowing development on flood plains? Is that rational? No. Is there any meaningful benefit? No.
A small example of complexity, even though it's obvious that nothing happens in isolation; a huge web of interlinked issues that need to be unpicked and brought back together in a way that works. I see no evidence that any political party or media organisation appreciates or communicates these complexities instead relying on sensationalism to further their own agenda.
There are many further layers of complexity that I can illustrate but the other one that I have a recent example of is to do with energy efficient homes. I posted here a while ago about bring together two charities together to see what could be done to lobby government to put together something resembling sensible building regs for new homes. One of them (the one with better access to government) had already done a lot of work on their retrofit warmer homes policy, but I highlighted all the different problems arising from this approach (some of which have hit the headlines recently in botched execution of roof insulation funded by government grant). I attended a meeting with theis charity last week and despite the input they had from actual real practitioners who build shit they've decided to go with their approach.
Soundbites, headlines, tweetable bollocks is the attention span that we in general are willing to commit to existential issues whilst absorbing in minute detail everything about what some "celeb" has done in the jungle or on the dance floor.
I see no sign of impending positive change in society, politics or the media. Much as I dislike his generally negative perception of changing demographics I do agree with PB that Reform will be a meaningful party at the next elections. While the world burns society gets suckered into single issue politics with simple "solutions" by proven liars and cheats.
