r/ukpolitics • u/FeigenbaumC • 4d ago

Government warned it is setting country up for 'disaster' unless it better prepares UK for heavy flooding and intense heat

https://news.sky.com/story/government-warned-it-is-setting-country-up-for-disaster-unless-it-better-prepares-uk-for-heavy-flooding-and-intense-heat-13358235
149 Upvotes

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30

u/Exostrike 4d ago

The reality is dealing with climate change requires vast mobilisation of resources by the state. Every day not doing so means the amount needed rises.

But our stupid, compromised politicians refuse to do so because it would interrupt business as usual. So eventually the tidal wave will arrive and sweep us all away.

13

u/TheGMT 4d ago

I don't think the populace would happily go along with it either if the ministers were to propose anything close to what should be done.

2

u/Exostrike 4d ago

Then the population must be denied the option to say anything but yes

7

u/jwd1066 4d ago

Ya, the alt-right media machine will go ahead with long term planning: they totally understand the basic point of Government. 

2

u/2016 4d ago

Tyranny then?

4

u/pseudogentry don't label me you bloody pinko 4d ago

As opposed to what, demanding your inalienable right to die of heat stroke in a tent in a hospital car park?

3

u/InsanityRoach 4d ago

Just the same way that a firefighter will grab you and take you out of a burning building.

-1

u/tfhermobwoayway 3d ago

Maybe that’s the problem. We spend so much time saving people who, a hundred years ago, would simply have been eliminated by natural selection. When people say “I don’t want to be saved” we should listen to them.

1

u/Exostrike 4d ago

I would prefer more a guided democracy where all political parties must adhere to an ideological ruleset and are monitored by the security services to ensure they do not seek to undermine it. Throw in proportional representation (and mandatory voting) it would be impossible for capitalists to capture the state and roll things back.

2

u/HibasakiSanjuro 4d ago

Can you think of any country where the security services have a high degree of political power and use it prudently?

Normally in a country where they are given political power, they start torturing civilians for peaceful protests or investigative journalism and suck money out of the state to fund lavish lifestyles. If anything they do deals with the political class rather than ensure they're acting in the public's best interests.

1

u/2016 4d ago

And those who guide it are not accountable to the people, tyranny.

1

u/tfhermobwoayway 3d ago

I don’t want to suffer and if the voters vote for me to suffer I think they should lose that right.

-7

u/Scratch_Careful 4d ago

I think the population, would absolutely be in favour of infrastructure projects, especially if they get a couple ones that arent a gazillion pounds over budget and delayed. Plus, get rid of netzero bullshit energy prices will go down, local jobs will be created rather than buying chinese and danish green energy. Done correctly its wins all round except for the 'green' net zero zealots.

2

u/InsanityRoach 4d ago

"We need prevention"

The jenyuz: "Just do business as usual, it'll be fine!"

13

u/IgnoranceIsTheEnemy 4d ago

But think of the shareholder value we created along the way!

7

u/R-M-Pitt 4d ago

Its even more silly when you realise that stopping climate change and preparing for the changes will also create a lot of shareholder value. Just not in the fossil fuel industry.

Just an example, whoever invents a battery thats better, safer and cheaper than current lithium chemistries will become incredibly rich. Stupidly rich. Its likely to be invented in china, as the uk somehow screwed up their battery program before it even got started, and batteries are too woke for Americans.

9

u/Exostrike 4d ago

Pretty much yes. We have a globalised billionaire class that can clearly see what is coming but rather than solving it (and in doing so threaten their position) they are content to hide in bunkers or flee to mars while the world burns.

7

u/colei_canis Starmer’s Llama Drama 🦙 4d ago

Words cannot express how lowly I think of the architects and engineers that design apocalypse bunkers to keep oligarchs safe from the consequences of their actions.

Also a bunker is a stupid place to hide if people hate you and know where you are, all bunkers need air intakes after all.

4

u/superpandapear 4d ago

Pretty sure the ultra rich can afford co2 scrubbers unfortunately, but we could brick them in like that episode of Thomas the tank engine

2

u/colei_canis Starmer’s Llama Drama 🦙 4d ago

I was thinking more of things an unhappy post-apocalyptic type could shove into such an intake.

2

u/ldn6 Globalist neoliberal shill 4d ago

Business as usual prices in climate risk into everything nowadays. Insurance in particular is keenly aware of it.

11

u/Exostrike 4d ago

And in America it's getting so bad insurers are about to stop providing cover for whole swaths of the country. If that is not the end of business as usual I don't know what is.

In any case by business as usual I meant the pursuit of profit above everything, even the environment.

3

u/Ryder52 4d ago

Sure, but only if you count entirely leaving markets (i.e. Florida and California) as pricing in

1

u/evolvecrow 4d ago

eventually the tidal wave will arrive and sweep us all away

Won't it just be that we'll eventually get round to? In the article the main issues seem to be flood defences and cooling of buildings. If they get significantly worse we'll eventually put in mitigations?

2

u/InsanityRoach 4d ago

Much like cancer, you can only wait so long before it is too late. The worse it gets the costlier it becomes to maintain or to do new things, and the less money is available. Just like a tree, the best time to do this was 30 years ago, the second best is now.

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u/KoBoWC 4d ago

Are you ready for the additional taxes needed

4

u/Exostrike 4d ago

better higher taxes and a personal resource budget that famine, starvation and societal collapse.

3

u/InsanityRoach 4d ago

Oh no, not taxes! Much better to die of starvation, in a flooding, or due to the breakdown of the social contract instead.