History > 2007 > UK > Nature / Weather (I)

Funding call

as flood death toll rises to six

Emergency services 'came close to collapse'
as 3,500 evacuated from swamped homes

Friday June 29, 2007
Guardian
Martin Wainwright

The government is facing pressure to step up civil emergency measures and increase funding after figures revealed that this week's flood rescues have been one of the biggest peacetime operations of their kind.
As the death toll rose to six and the casualty list topped 600, Home Office figures showed that 3,500 people have been rescued from swamped homes and a further 4,000 call-outs carried out by firefighters, ambulance staff and police.

The absence of political leaders in the stricken areas, during three days which coincided with the change of government, will be highlighted today when Prince Charles visits at least one, and possibly several, of the communities - mostly in Yorkshire and in the Severn valley - which have suffered millions of pounds of damage. The Queen sent a message of sympathy yesterday.

The first sign that political paralysis was ending came last night when the new environment secretary, Hilary Benn, visited flooded areas of Doncaster on his way to his Leeds Central constituency, which includes the waterfront area where residents are demanding action on a £100m flood defence scheme.

Hundreds of households whose homes were engulfed on Monday will not be able to return for up to three months, according to the Home Office report. Its findings were backed by the Fire Brigades Union, which said the service had come close "to the point of collapse".

The general secretary, Matt Wrack, said: "The government has not understood the scale, gravity and severity of what has happened. We have witnessed the biggest rescue effort in peacetime Britain by our emergency services and it's not over yet.

"Fire crews and officers have been working to the point of collapse. Emergency fire control operators have been under pressure, with thousands of extra calls.

"We don't mind the politicians turning up for photo opportunities but we just ask them to bring their chequebooks, because the cost of these floods is enormous and communities may take years to recover."

Distress calls divided between 3,000 in Humberside, 1,282 in West Yorkshire, 596 in South Yorkshire, 176 in North Yorkshire, 450 in Shropshire, 412 in Gloucestershire, 522 in Nottinghamshire, 247 in Derbyshire, 120 in Norfolk and 186 in Staffordshire. The three Yorkshire counties had by far the most flood incidents, with their combined tally reaching more than 6,200.

Heavy rain is expected across most of the country this weekend, but emergency staff said they were not expecting a repeat of this week's chaos. South Yorkshire's assistant chief constable, Mark Whyman, who has co-ordinated rescue work in the worst-hit areas of Sheffield, said: "I'm told by the experts we are not going to see the scenes that we saw on Monday."

The regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward, beat government departments to the cash box by promising up to £1m. Small firms will get up to £2,500 and larger ones will be treated on a case by case basis. The chief executive, Tom Riordan, said: "We want businesses to be able to restore their premises and begin trading as soon as possible."

A man whose body was found floating in the river Leen in Nottingham was named as Hugh Birch, 41, from Lincolnshire. A search at Bentley, near Doncaster, for a man thought to have been swept from a flood defence dyke was called off as a false alarm, but a sixth victim, a man in his 60s, was found drowned in a waterways lock near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire.

Fears of looting from evacuated houses in south Yorkshire were eased by Mr Whyman, who said crime had fallen during the crisis. He said that extra patrols had been joined by private security staff contracted to councils. "There'll be the odd rogue that takes advantage but we're on their case."

    Funding call as flood death toll rises to six, G, 29.6.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,2114419,00.html

Two more feared dead

as flood defences boosted

· Former judge found dead in submerged car
· Concern over state of damaged dam above M1

Thursday June 28, 2007
Guardian
Martin Wainwright and Steven Morris

Devastating floods slowly began to drain from hundreds of wrecked homes yesterday, but are thought to have claimed another two lives, making the total six.

As helicopters ferried sandbags to shore up river banks in Yorkshire and the West Midlands, a body was found in the River Lean at Nottingham, while a major search failed to locate a man near Doncaster.

In Worcestershire, a motorist swept to his death as he tried to cross a flooded ford was yesterday identified as county court judge Eric Dickinson, 68, who sat across the West Midlands for more than 20 years. His body was found in his submerged car near Pershore on Tuesday evening. A search began after he rang his wife during Monday's heavy rain to tell her his Volvo was being overwhelmed by flood water.

Meantime, a man who died caught in rising floods in Sheffield was identified as Peter Harding, 68. He was going home with a friend on Monday evening when he was caught in the water, lost consciousness, and was dead on arrival at hospital.

A tidemark of debris, mud and ruined cars emerged slowly from the worst-flooded areas, where damage has run into millions of pounds. In the marooned village of Catcliffe, near Sheffield, hundreds of residents prepared for a third night in council reception centres.

Continuous pumping and natural drainage eased most areas hit by surface run-off following torrents on Monday that overwhelmed the drains and sewer network.

But some rivers were still rising by late afternoon and there was concern over flood defences on the Don in South Yorkshire, the Severn in Worcestershire and the fragility of a dam above the M1 in South Yorkshire. The M1 re-opened last night when the risk of a bursting receded, but restrictions remained on junctions in Sheffield and Rotherham. At Upton upon Severn, 42bn litres swept through the town bridge yesterday. Extra pumps were brought as rivulets lapped at buildings.

RAF Chinooks were mobilised at Bentley, a village near Doncaster, where residents were told to evacuate as water spilled over the Don's banks. Helicopters ferried aggregate to bolster defences before thermal imaging searches for a man reported fallen into a dyke.

A second overflow nearby saw serious flooding of a power station at Arksey. Fire crews in boats stemmed the breach and by last night power had been restored to 67,000 properties cut off at the height. Last night engineers worked to restore power to 19,000 homes in Yorkshire, with 3,000 in Hull and Beverley and a scattering in North Yorkshire. By far the biggest relief for emergency chiefs in Sheffield has been the holding of the stone dam at Ulley reservoir. More than 1,500 tonnes of stone have been used to prop up the dam, with a further 500 tonnes due this morning. Emergency convoys of quarry lorries got police escorts through chaotic traffic caused by closing of five miles of the M1 between Rotherham and Sheffield.

The Met Office issued an early warning of severe weather for later in the week and the weekend with further rain and showers forecast across parts of the country.

    Two more feared dead as flood defences boosted, G, 28.6.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,2113275,00.html

Flood defence spending

delayed for years

in storm-ravaged cities

· Up to £250m a year needed, say insurers
· Death toll rises to four as hundreds are evacuated

Wednesday June 27, 2007
Guardian
John Vidal, Helen Carter,
Martin Wainwright and Rachel Williams

Many flood defence schemes planned for the cities and communities now devastated by days of torrential rain have been postponed for years by government cutbacks, it emerged yesterday.

Among them is a £100m scheme for Leeds, and others intended for Sheffield, Selby, Hull, York, Thirsk, Northallerton and Doncaster, places that have been hit by some of the worst flooding to hit the north of England in years. The details came to light as hundreds of people across Yorkshire and in the Midlands were evacuated from their homes, and 700 residents were moved downstream as the swollen Ulley dam threatened to burst near Rotherham.

Last night police divers recovered a bodythought to be a motorist who went missing after phoning his wife on Monday afternoon to tell her his car was being swept away by flood water in Worcestershire. Police searching for him confirmed a body had been found by a submerged vehicle at Bow Brook, in Pershore.

In all, four people, including one schoolboy, have died so far.

Government papers seen by the Guardian show that spending on national flood defences will not be increased until 2011, despite warnings from insurers, the Environment Agency, and the National Audit Office that one in two defences is inadequate. and up to £250m a year needs to be invested to avert further major flooding.

More than £200m of budget cuts were forced on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs by the Treasury last year to make up a shortfall following late subsidy payments to farmers. But the Guardian understands that the Treasury also demanded further cuts in flood defence spending in the past few weeks.

Yesterday, members of the 11 regional flood defence committees said the government had been repeatedly warned of the consequences of not investing in flood defences.

"There have been many flood defence projects delayed [in Yorkshire] because of the cuts. Over the last three years there has been a build-up of capital schemes judged to be necessary. Some have been postponed," said Andrew Waller, deputy leader of York city council and a member of the Environment Agency's north-east region flood defence committee.

Another, speaking on condition of anonymity, said flood defence spending was only half of what the Environment Agency considered necessary. "All regional flood defence committees are concerned about the impact of Defra's spending cuts. There are an awful lot of capital [flood defence] schemes around the country in the pipeline - but very few will be built in the next few years."

The agency said: "We receive about £500m per year. Over the next three years we need to spend £750m a year. As the impact of climate change bites we will need to spend nearer £1bn a year." A National Audit Committee report this month showed fewer than half of the country's high-risk flood defences are in target condition.

The environment secretary, David Miliband, told parliament that emergency financial assistance would be available to councils dealing with flooding. "Heavy rain later in the week remains a real threat ,and all the appropriate agencies remain on high alert," he said. Yesterday the M1 northbound was closed between junctions 32 and 34, and southbound between junctions 34 and 36, amid fears the Ulley dam would not hold, as more than a month's rainfall fell in one day. Fissures had appeared on the dam wall, but by last night engineers were confident their work could stop it bursting or giving way.

South Yorkshire police said the closed section of the M1 would remain shut overnight. The situation was to be reviewed this morning, but police were urging motorists to consider their journeys.

Floodwater disabled roads in a triangle between Barnsley, Doncaster and Sheffield. People in Bentley near Doncaster and the market town of Mexborough were told to leave their homes, while residents were evacuated in Lincoln, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, Ludlow, Shropshire, and Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire.

Elsewhere clean-up operations began. Parts of central Sheffield resembled a bomb site after the area saw the most rain since records began 125 years ago.

Ryan Parry, 14, died after falling into the river Sheaf at Millhouses in Sheffield on Monday. A 68-year-old man was swept away as he abandoned his car in Sheffield, while fire chiefs defended their attempts to free a man who died after becoming trapped by his foot in a flooded drain in Hull.

Damage will cost millions of pounds

· Around 1,000 properties were flooded after up to 101.6mm (4in) of rain fell in 24 hours, and thousands of people have been forced from their homes.

· No severe weather warnings remain, but there are still 25 severe flood warnings - the majority in the north-east - and 118 standard flood warnings.

· The wettest June on record was in 1980, when 121.2mm of rain fell across the UK on average. So far this month has seen an average of 106.5mm, and northern England has already had its wettest June on record.

· A sixth of the UK's annual rain fell in 12 hours on Monday. The highest rainfall was 103mm at Fylingdales, Yorkshire.

· An estimated 8,600 insurance claims were made on Monday, with the cost of the damage likely to run into hundreds of millions of pounds. The British Chamber of Commerce said the torrential rain could cost the economy up to £400m a day.

· Residents in 120 flats in Lincoln were evacuated in dinghies yesterday as the river Witham started to seep through its banks.

· Around 70 properties in Worksop were evacuated and the town centre sealed off.

· Residents in Ludlow were evacuated when the river Corve caused a bridge to collapse, severing a gas main.
Rachel Williams

    Flood defence spending delayed for years in storm-ravaged cities, 27.6.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,2112237,00.html

11.45am update

More evacuations

as floods threaten to burst dam

Tuesday June 26, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Matthew Weaver,
Rachel Williams and Lee Glendinning

Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes in Yorkshire this morning after record rainfall led to fears that a reservoir could burst its banks.

Firefighters were trying to drain the reservoir, which is less than a mile from the M1 motorway and near a power station that serves most of Sheffield.

The M1 was closed northbound between junctions 32 and 34 due to fears about the dam. It was also shut southbound between junctions 34 and 36.

Rotherham Metropolitan borough council urged residents living near Ulley dam, in South Yorkshire, to leave their houses after cracks appeared in the dam walls.

Residents were taken by bus to a temporary evacuation centre set up at Dinnington comprehensive school in Rotherham. The council spokeswoman Tracy Holmes said: "We have taken professional advice from an engineer, who said there is a significant risk that the dam could fail."

Residents from the Whiston, Catcliffe and Treeton areas of Rotherham were advised it was "in their interests" to leave their properties, but were allowed to remain at home if they insisted, as long as they stayed upstairs.

Bob Kerslake, the chief executive of Sheffield city council, said: "We have seen the most intense rain since records began." About 1,400 people in Sheffield spent last night in emergency accommodation as water levels rose.

Sheffield Wednesday was forced to close Hillsborough stadium after the pitch was submerged under deep water. The river Don, which flows right past the Coca-Cola Championship club's ground, burst its banks leaving the immediate area without electricity and working telephone lines.

At a press conference in Sheffield today, police and local authority officials said the city had suffered "significant damage" in the floods.

Tony Blair today praised the response of emergency services to the floods.

"This has been an extraordinary and very serious event for us," the prime minister said at a Downing Street press conference on climate change with California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"Our flood defences are holding but this is a difficult situation and it is not the first time over the past few years that we have been subject to quite unusual and extraordinary weather variations," he said.

The environment secretary, David Miliband, would make a parliamentary statement on the situation later, Mr Blair said. Yesterday a 28-year-old man died after being trapped for four hours in a burst drain, as torrential rain caused chaos around the country. Three people were killed in total, while hundreds of others were caught in buildings and motorists left stranded as a month's worth of rain fell.

Firefighters and divers in Humberside tried in vain to rescue Michael Barnett after he became stuck up to his neck in water when his foot got wedged in a manhole grate. He was thought to have been trying to clear the manhole to stop flooding. He became trapped at 10.30am and survived until four hours later.

Witnesses described seeing him becoming submerged as the water levels rose and losing consciousness while the emergency crews struggled to free him. Humberside fire and rescue service said the situation in the Hessle area of Hull was "horrible".

Last night Mike Barnett Sr said that he had only found out his son had died at the moment the story was reported on the news. "He was a lovely son," he said yesterday. "I could not want for better."

Sandra Green, who lives nearby, said she was approached by a neighbour who had seen Mr Barnett slip into the drain. The neighbour asked if she had any snorkelling equipment to help the trapped man breathe.

"I had some breathing apparatus, because I am a keen amateur diver," she said. "When I got there, the rising floodwaters were up to the man's chest. We tried to save him but the water was coming up to his shoulders."

He was given a tube to breathe through. Emergency services were said to be on the verge of amputating his foot - before the moment came when the freezing temperatures became too much for him, and he was pronounced dead.

Mr Barnett had worked at a local fish farm, Kingston Koi Carp in Hessle, since 1995. Last night, his employer, Geoffrey Claxton, said that he was down at the drain because the business was flooding. "Mike was trying to save everything from flooding. He said: 'Come on, get yourself out. There is nothing you can do.'

"I got out and went in the house to get some waders. I came back, and Mike was in the water up to his chest. I don't know how he slipped in ...

"A neighbour dived down three times to try and to get him out. The pressure was so great they could not move him. He was getting weaker and weaker."

Glenn Ramsden, of Humberside fire and rescue service, described the death as a "terrible accident". Mr Barnett had been communicating with the rescuers as they took turns diving into the turbulent water full of rocks and branches, he said.

The tragedy came on the same day as the body of a 14-year-old boy was recovered from the river Sheaf at Millhouses Park in Sheffield, a quarter of a mile downstream from where he was swept into the river at 5.15pm, South Yorkshire police said. He was named today as Ryan Joe Parry.

A spokesman said that a 68-year-old man also died after he was swept away in Sheffield as he was trying to cross the road at 8.30pm.

In Brightside, Sheffield, hundreds were evacuated after being trapped in their offices, homes and businesses. The evacuation began in the afternoon after neighbouring roads became completely flooded and the river Don burst its banks.

Two Sea King helicopters were airlifting people to Sheffield airport from where they were being taken to the city's arena to spend the night.

The Environment Agency issued 11 severe flood warnings - concentrated in the north-east of England, the Midlands and East Anglia. The rain was forecast to drop off today but return later in the week, although not as heavily as yesterday, according to meteorologists.

    More evacuations as floods threaten to burst dam, G, 26.6.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,2111677,00.html

3.45pm update

Man dies

after becoming trapped

in flooded drain

Monday June 25, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
James Sturcke and agencies


A man has died after his foot became trapped in a flooded drain as torrential rain lashed parts of Britain today.
Firefighters and divers battled for three hours to rescue the man, thought to be in his 20s, as water rose above his head in the Hessle area of Hull. He died shortly before 3pm.

Witnesses described seeing the man being submerged on several occasions as the water levels rose. At one point, he lost consciousness as the emergency crews struggled to free him. Moments later, he lost his battle for life.

A Humberside Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said a number of people had entered the floodwaters during the desperate attempt to save the man.

"The guy had been out just helping ... to clear the drains and helping with the flood water that was coming in. Unfortunately, he slipped and got trapped down there, and his foot got caught in some metal grating," Glenn Ramsden, of the service, told Sky News.

"Despite the efforts of the all the rescue team, including police divers and ourselves, we couldn't do anything to save the man.

He said around five fire engines, a police diving team and paramedics had been engaged in the "desperate operation" to try and save the man's life.

Firefighters had sent for heavy lifting equipment and demolished surrounding garden walls in an attempt to channel the rising waters elsewhere. "It's a horrible situation down here," Mr Ramsden said. "I must send our commiserations to the family of the gentleman."

    Man dies after becoming trapped in flooded drain, G, 25.6.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,2111076,00.html

Britain mops up

after summer deluge


Sunday June 17, 2007
The Observer
Juliette Jowit, environment editor

Britain yesterday began to clear up the chaos caused by summer downpours across much of the country as forecasters promised a brief respite from the rain before the wet weather returns this week.

Heavy rain caused chaos across much of the Midlands and north of England on Friday, and rescue workers were still searching for a teenage soldier who was missing after being washed away as he tried to cross a swollen river on an exercise.

By the middle of yesterday afternoon the Environment Agency had reduced the number of active flood warnings to 67, including only one severe weather warning - signifying extreme danger to life and property - on the River Don in Yorkshire. Much of Britain should have a break from the heavy rains today, but forecasters warn that more wet weather is on its way.

The Met Office said the north east of England was at risk of heavy rain today, while there could be 'one or two' showers in the north west, and the south of England would be 'largely dry' with sunny spells.

Rain is expected to return to the south on Sunday night, moving up the country during Monday, and to get heavier on Tuesday, including a chance of humid weather and thunderstorms in the south east, said national forecaster Andrew Sibley.

Police and mountain rescue workers resumed their search yesterday for the 17-year-old soldier who has been missing since around 9am on Friday after he and two others fell into Risedale Beck on Hipswell Moor, Yorkshire. Two of the soldiers, on a routine exercise, were rescued, but a mountain rescue team and an RAF helicopter failed to find the third. Around 50 other soldiers had successfully crossed before the 17-year-old, according to an army spokesman.

Rail lines were still disrupted in the West Midlands and South and West Yorkshire yesterday, affecting services run by Central Trains, GNER, Northern Rail, Transpennine Express and Virgin Trains.

    Britain mops up after summer deluge, NYT, 17.6.2007, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2104965,00.html

Soldier missing

and 40 factory staff

trapped in floods

Saturday June 16, 2007
Guardian
Alexandra Topping and Helen Pidd

A teenage soldier who fell into a swollen river was still missing and more than 40 workers remained trapped inside a factory yesterday after thunderstorms and torrential rain caused severe flooding across the UK. Train services were disrupted, homes flooded and motorists stranded after heavy rainfall which is expected to continue into the weekend.

Three soldiers fell into Risedale beck on Hipswell moor, near Catterick garrison in North Yorkshire, while on a march yesterday morning. Two were rescued, but a third, aged 17, was washed away.

The alarm was raised by an officer shortly before 9.15am. The three soldiers were wading across the beck with their arms linked when the force of the water knocked them off their feet. Around 50 other soldiers had successfully crossed before them, an army spokesman said.

Other soldiers tried to find the missing teenager, based at the Infantry Training Centre in Catterick, and police, a fell rescue team and an RAF helicopter were called in to help in the search.

Meanwhile, workers on the night shift at the WH Smith & Sons tool factory in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, were trapped inside the building by floodwaters up to 6ft deep.

Dennis Rodway, the manufacturing manager, confirmed that staff had been told to shelter on the first floor of the two-storey factory after the nearby river Tame burst its banks. He said: "We are all sitting in a nice warm rest-room, which is very well appointed, to see what can be done to get us out. The factory itself is perfectly dry but we are still surrounded by water."

He added: "We have still got power and nobody is going to starve."

The Environment Agency issued flood warnings in Yorkshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. Spokesperson Joe Giacomelli said: "We are advising people to be vigilant." Three severe flood warnings, indicating "extreme danger", were issued for Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

In Sheffield a 14-year-old boy was rescued after falling into a swollen stream in Chapeltown. Craig Stenton, 41, waded into deep water to grab the teenager.

A Met Office spokesman said: "The rain over Yorkshire seems to be easing but further heavy showers and thunderstorms can be expected in south Wales, the south-west and up the Thames corridor."

    Soldier missing and 40 factory staff trapped in floods, NYT, 16.6.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,2104362,00.html

1.45pm update

Further storms forecast

as floods hit UK

Friday June 15, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
James Sturcke and agencies

Torrential overnight rain triggered floods and transport disruption today as forecasters warned the severe weather would continue into the weekend.

The West Midlands and Yorkshire were worst hit with train services out of Birmingham severely restricted. South Yorkshire fire brigade said they received more than 200 calls in an eight-hour period after midnight.

South Yorkshire police advised people not to travel unless essential. Rotherham and Sheffield were most affected, the force said, particularly the River Don and Ecclesfield, and Templeborough in Rotherham.

In Sheffield, a 14-year-old boy was rescued by a local man after falling into a flooded river. A number of schools in the area were closed due to flooding, local authorities said.

In North Yorkshire, two people were rescued from a car after a landslide on the A59 between Skipton and Harrogate while a soldier was reported missing after falling into a river in Hipswell, North Yorkshire.

Around 40 people were trapped on the upper floor of a factory in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, after the River Tame burst its banks and flooded the ground level.

The Met Office issued heavy rain warnings for Northern Ireland, northern England, Yorkshire and Humber, the Midlands, Wales and south-west England.

The Environment Agency has also put three severe flood warning and 36 flood warnings in place across the UK.

Network Rail reported a long list of delays affecting train travel.

Virgin Trains warned that "severe flooding" meant its services through the West Midlands were subject to delays.

"Lines were blocked in a number of areas around the West Midlands, which caused disruption," a spokesman said.

Many Yorkshire train routes were affected including GNER services between Leeds and Wakefield.

Racing at York was abandoned as was the first day of the test match against the West Indies in Durham.

The wettest place was Bingley in West Yorkshire. The town was deluged with 2.8in (71mm) of rain in 24 hours.

Inland areas, especially in northern England, the Midlands and central Wales are most at risk from the stormy conditions today, according to MeteoGroup UK forecaster, Rachel Vince.

Persistent and heavy rain is also likely to move across Northern Ireland and southern Scotland, but the northern half of Scotland should have a fine day.

South-east England will also escape most of the rain but will feel muggy. The heavy rain belt will move north overnight into Scotland.

"On Saturday, Northern Ireland and Scotland are expecting to have a lot of cloud and spells of rain, although it will become brighter as the day progresses," Ms Vince said.

"In England and Wales we are expecting the sunshine to break through at times, more especially across southern areas. But we have got heavy showers, thundery showers and torrential downpours expected."

She said areas affected by thunderstorms could experience about 25mm of rainfall, with 5 to 6mm elsewhere. Sunday is expected to be drier.

Yesterday, Stormont ministers approved a £5m relief fund for people whose homes in Northern Ireland were damaged this week by freak weather.

Parts of Belfast, Omagh and other areas were flooded on Tuesday as Northern Ireland received the equivalent of the entire rainfall for the month of June.

Thirty-seven people were rescued from their cars - 22 of them in Belfast and 15 in Omagh - as firefighters answered around 400 calls. Sewers overflowed as two inches of rainfall fell in two hours.

    Further storms forecast as floods hit UK, G, 15.6.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,2103903,00.html

Global Warming

Threatens Antarctic Base

June 8, 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:27 a.m. ET
The New York Times

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- The Antarctic base occupied by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on his ill-fated expedition to the South Pole on foot early last century has been included on a list of the world's 100 most endangered sites.

The list, compiled by an international panel and released Wednesday by the World Monuments Fund, identifies what are considered to be the world's most endangered historic, architectural and cultural treasures.

The WMF identified climate change as the biggest threat to the hut, built in 1911 at Cape Evans by Captain Scott's British Antarctic expedition. The hut is wooden but for decades was permanently frozen. With the ice melting, the timbers have become waterlogged and are rotting.

Thousands of objects and artifacts from the expedition, which cost Scott and his team their lives during their return journey from the South Pole, remain in and around the hut.

Nigel Watson, the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust director, said Friday the New Zealand government supported any efforts to preserve the site and hoped the listing would attract donors.

He said the estimated cost of conserving the site was $6.7 million.

New Zealand's Everest conqueror and Antarctic explorer Sir Edmund Hillary has been vocal in supporting the preservation of the Scott hut, along with another occupied by a fellow British polar explorer, Sir Ernest Shackelton.

    Global Warming Threatens Antarctic Base, NYT, 8.6.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Antarctic-Explorer-Huts.html

Earth tremor

hits southeast England

Sat Apr 28, 2007
8:56AM EDT
Reuters

FOLKESTONE (Reuters) - Southeast England was hit by a small earthquake on Saturday that brought down power lines and caused some structural damage.

Kent Police said they were working closely with emergency services in the coastal town of Folkestone -- the area worst hit by the tremor -- in dealing with more than 100 emergency calls. But there were no reports of serious injuries.

"Sussex police's helicopter is helping us with a view of the area, while the Kent police marine unit is out as well," said a Kent police spokeswoman.

Experts gave differing estimates of the earthquake's strength with the U.S. Geological Survey measuring the tremor's magnitude at 4.7 on the Richter scale while the British Geological Survey put it at 4.3.

"It's similar to ones in 1950 and 1776," said Dr Roger Musson of the British Geological Survey (BGS). "We're quite fortunate that it's as small as it is."

The earthquake brought down power lines with several thousand homes affected, but EDF Energy Networks said service had been quickly restored to customers in the Folkestone and Dover areas.

After the earthquake, local residents called television stations to report feeling the ground shake, cracks appearing in homes and chimneys being brought down.

"It woke me. It felt like an explosion and my bedroom started shaking backwards and forwards. It was a violent, violent rattle," Alison Reiney told Sky News

Witness Lorraine Muir said chimneys had come down, gas and electricity supplies were off and people were being evacuated from their homes by the Salvation Army.

"We've been evacuated ... we've got no gas or electricity at the moment. It's chaos up here," she said.

The earthquake had no effect on international travel services with Eurotunnel, which runs cross-channel rail services to France from its terminal near Folkestone on the English coast, running normally.

A spokesman at Dover, one of the busiest ferry ports in Europe, also said it was operating normally. "There has been no impact on ferries or on checking in," he said.

The tremor, which struck at 0718 GMT, was the largest British earthquake since the one that hit Dudley in the West Midlands in 2002.

    Earth tremor hits southeast England, R, 28.4.2007, http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL2861575520070428

Overheating Britain:

April temperatures

break all records

Will this be the summer when Britain reaches 40°C
and the effects of climate change are painfully brought home

Published: 28 April 2007
The New York Times
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
 

The possibility is growing that Britain in 2007 may experience a summer of unheard-of high temperatures, with the thermometer even reaching 40C, or 104F,a level never recorded in history.

The likelihood of such a "forty degree summer" is being underlined by the tumbling over the past year of a whole series of British temperature records, strongly suggesting that the British Isles have begun to experience a period of rapid, not to say alarming, warming. This would be quite outside all historical experience, but entirely consistent with predictions of climate change.

The Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, in a joint forecast with the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, has already suggested that 2007 will be the hottest year ever recorded globally.

Its long-term forecast for this summer in Britain is much more cautious, merely predicting that temperatures this year will be "above average". However, the suite of new records for the UK established in the past 12 months, culminating in an April of unprecedented high temperatures, is pointing to something new happening to the British climate.

The incredibly warm April days we have been experiencing are not just wonderful, they are downright weird when seen in their seasonal context. Some of them have been 10C hotter, or more, than they should be at this time of the year.

Average maximum temperatures at the end of April in southern England are traditionally about 13C or 14C. This weekend in London and the South-east, the thermometer may hit 26C or even 27C - 79F to 80F.

An air temperature of 80 in April seems to belong to fantasy land. In the childhood of anyone aged over 40, it was a rare enough temperature in August.

Even with its end not yet here, this month is certain to be the hottest April ever recorded. But that's just one of a cascade of British temperature records which are now falling.

Spring 2007 (defined as March, April and May) will probably be Britain's hottest spring. It has followed the second-warmest winter in the UK record (December, January and February) and the warmest-ever autumn (September, October and November 2006).

Before that, we had Britain's hottest-ever month (July last year), which included the hottest-ever July day (19 July, when the temperature at Wisley, Surrey, reached 36.5C, or 97.7F, beating a record that had lasted since 1911).

To crown it all, yesterday the Met Office announced that the past 12 months, taken together, have been the hottest 12 months ever to have occurred in Britain, with a provisional mean temperature of 10.4C. The previous record (March 1997 to April 1998) was 9.7C.

This leap of nearly three-quarters of a degree is huge and should make everybody consider whether a major shift in Britain's climate is becoming visible. To answer Yes to that question is by no means unreasonable.

It raises the possibility that in 2007 Britain may experience for the first time the sort of "extreme event" heatwave that supercomputer models of climate predict will hit Britain as global warming takes hold.

A heatwave of this nature hit northern and central France in the first two weeks of August 2003 and caused 18,000 excess deaths (part of a total of 35,000 excess deaths in a wider area including Switzerland, northern Italy and southern Germany). Many of the dead were old people with breathing difficulties who collapsed when night-time temperatures never dropped below the 80s Fahrenheit.

The temperatures recorded during this episode were so far above the statistical record that it is accepted by meteorological scientists as having been caused by climate change - and is regarded as one of its first manifestations in Europe.

Even though Britain was not at the centre of the heatwave, the UK temperature record was resoundingly smashed by it. On 10 August 2003, the 100F mark was breached for the first time ever, with a reading of 38.5C, or 101.3F, at Brogdale, near Faversham in Kent.

The previous record had been 37.1C, or 98.8F, set on 3 August 1990 at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and thus the jump was 1.4 degrees Centigrade or 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit, an absolutely enormous leap.

Despite the astonishing April, the natural variability of the climate is such that there is no guarantee whatsoever that the 2003 record will be broken this summer. But the indications are pointing that way. And if 2007 summer temperatures do go even higher, hitting the 40C/104F mark, there might well be severe problems for the public services, not just with drought and water shortages, but with large-scale heat exhaustion.

A side effect might well be to make it extremely hard for people who do not accept that climate change is happening to deny the reality of a warming world.

"The effects of temperature rise are being experienced on a global scale," Dr Debbie Hemming, a climate scientist at the Hadley Centre, said last night.

"Many of the regions that are projected to experience the largest climate changes are already vulnerable to environmental stress from resource shortages, rapid urbanisation, population rise and industrial development."

If you want to bet on the temperature exceeding the 100F mark this summer, Ladbrokes will only quote odds of 3-1.

The bookies aren't stupid. And they may well be right.

Overheating Britain

* The winter of 2006-2007 was the UK's second-hottest ever

* Autumn 2006 was the hottest ever

* July 2006 was Britain's hottest ever month

* Hottest ever 12-month period: 31 April 2006 to 1 May 2007 (provisional mean temperature: 10.4C)

* Previous hottest: 31 March 1997 to 1 April 1998 (9.7C)

    Overheating Britain: April temperatures break all records, I, 28.4.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2491773.ece

Tories raise climate stakes

Cameron outbids Labour's target
with a call for an 80 per cent cut
in carbon emissions by 2050

Sunday April 8, 2007
The Observer
Jo Revill, Whitehall editor


The Tories are to challenge Labour on a key plank of their green policy by adopting a far more ambitious target for cutting harmful greenhouse gases.

Experts asked by David Cameron to look at climate change have concluded that they should set a target of reducing carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, a substantial advance on Labour's commitment to 60 per cent.

Many scientists believe the 80 per cent figure must be achieved in developed countries if the average temperature around the world is to rise by no more than 2C over the next 40 years. Any rise greater than that represents what scientists believe to be the 'tipping point', when climate change would start to have a devastating impact, with floods, hurricanes and the loss of eco-systems.

Labour has argued that an 80 per cent target is not realistic and could do real damage to the economy. However, emissions of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, from power stations, vehicles and homes, rose last year, with the total higher by 6.4 million tonnes than the 2005 figure of 560 million tonnes. Britain's emissions are now at the highest level since Labour came to power a decade ago, nearly 3 per cent above 1997.

Environmentalists already believe that the government will not meet its target of cutting CO2 by 30 per cent by 2020 and 60 per cent by the middle of the century. The Quality of Life climate change group, established last year by Cameron, has concluded that the 80 per cent figure has to be achieved if temperature rises are to be contained.

Nick Hurd, MP for Ruislip-Northwood and chairman of the group, said: 'We are under no illusions about the political challenge, not least in securing an international agreement on a global emissions framework. However, the politics must fit the science and not the other way round.'

The group's recommendation was endorsed last night by several environmental groups, including WWF, Christian Aid and the Tearfund.

Political commentators said that for Cameron and the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, the challenge will be to explain how they can meet the target without seriously harming Britain's economy. A manifesto commitment of such a large cut in emissions would lead to accusations that industry could suffer enormously in the next 15 years, when the major cuts in emissions need to be made. One assessment for the government's Climate Change Bill, published this year, showed that certain measures could lead to redundancies in industries that use large amounts of energy, such as paper, steel and fertiliser production. Homeowners and businesses might also face bigger bills as they are forced to replace boilers, vehicles and electrical equipment with green alternatives.

The review led by Sir Nicholas Stern estimated that tackling climate change would cost Britain 1 per cent of its gross domestic product by 2050, but the costs of doing nothing would be five to 20 times greater. Central to his work was stabilising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases at 450-550 parts per million. He concluded that any attempt to go lower than 450 ppm 'would require immediate, substantial and rapid cuts in emissions that are likely to be extremely costly' to the economy.

However, the Tory policy group has concluded that the government should aim for a stabilisation range of between 400 and 450ppm, and reached the 80 per cent figure after taking in evidence from leading scientists.

    Tories raise climate stakes, O, 8.4.2007, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,2052541,00.html

Anger

as UK's carbon dioxide emissions

reach 10-year high

Published: 30 March 2007
The Independent
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor

A six-million-tonne question mark was placed over Britain's climate change strategy yesterday with the release of figures showing that UK greenhouse gas emissions, which the Government has pledged to cut radically, are actually soaring.

Emissions of the principal greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, from power stations, motor vehicles and homes, amounted to 560.6 million tonnes last year, 6.4 million tonnes higher than the 2005 figure. The increase of 1.15 per cent means that Britain's emissions are now at the highest level since Labour came to power a decade ago, nearly 3 per cent above 1997.

The disclosure, which seems to be a stark illustration that Britain's climate strategy is not working, despite all the pronouncements of Tony Blair and his ministers, was greeted with concern in Whitehall and with anger and scorn by environmentalists and opposition politicians. They said the Government was clearly not on course to meet its targets of cutting CO2 by 30 per cent by 2020 and 60 per cent by the middle of the century. (It has already admitted it will not meet its long-standing target of a 20 per cent cut by 2010.)

It is especially embarrassing for the Government as only a fortnight ago it launched with much fanfare its Climate Change Bill, proposing to make future targets to cut emissions legally binding and thus - in theory - unmissable.

British official rhetoric about action on global warming has hit new heights in the past six months, with the Treasury-sponsored Stern Review on the economics of climate change, and the publication of the latest report from UN scientists saying that climate change is now an "unequivocal" fact. Yet Britain's own emissions, as yesterday's figures show, are moving in the opposite direction.

"2006 was the year of government green spin, but the numbers don't lie," said Charlie Kronick, Greenpeace climate campaigner. "For all the announcements and reports only one thing really matters, is New Labour reducing Britain's carbon footprint? And the answer is no."

The Environment Secretary, David Miliband, acknowledged the concern. "While these figures are provisional, they underline why concerted effort to tackle climate change, both from Government and wider society, is absolutely critical," he said.

Mr Miliband's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the rise in emissions last year was "primarily as a result of fuel switching from natural gas to coal for electricity generation". High international gas prices have recently led big power stations to move from gas to cheaper coal, which is much more carbon-intensive.

Environmentalists counterclaimed that the rise in emissions was the result of inadequate government measures.

"Ministers get frustrated with us when we give critical reactions to their policies," said Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth (FoE). "But more than any complex piece of analysis, these figures show that we are right - they're not doing enough."

Mr Juniper repeated FoE's demand that the Climate Change Bill should include annual targets for cutting CO2 emissions by at least 3 per cent each year (which has been rejected in favour of five-year targets.)

"This would force successive governments to put climate change at the core of all their policies and ensure that the UK moves towards a low-carbon economy," he said. "Most of the solutions to climate change already exist. It is the political will that's lacking."

The Green party MEP Caroline Lucas commented: "It isn't setting the right targets alone that matters, it is also enacting the policies to meet them - and the Government has so consistently failed on this front that it gets harder with each passing day to believe a word it utters on the subject."

UK transport emissions were the other sector which showed a large rise last year. But the figures show that Britain is still on course to meet its obligations under the Kyoto protocol, the international climate treaty, to reduce emissions of a "basket" of six greenhouse gases by 12 per cent by 2010.

    Anger as UK's carbon dioxide emissions reach 10-year high, I, 30.3.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2405123.ece

Global warming:

The climate has changed

Prime Minister hails 'historic day'
in the battle against climate change

Published: 14 March 2007
The Independent
By Andrew Grice, Political Editor

The Government has become the first in the world to commit itself to legally binding reductions in carbon dioxide emissions but will come under strong pressure to agree to bigger cuts when its landmark Climate Change Bill goes though Parliament.

In a draft Bill published yesterday, ministers promised to enshrine into law their commitment to cut emissions by 60 per cent by 2050. Opposition parties and Labour MPs joined forces in calling for an 80 per cent reduction.

But even the Government's critics gave the Bill a broad welcome. Hailing a "historic day", Tony Blair said: "This is a revolutionary step in confronting the threat of climate change. It sets an example to the rest of the world but, as important as anything else, it listens and responds to the strong desire on the part of the British people to take the lead and keep it."

The Bill also sets an interim target of reducing emissions by between 26 per cent and 32 per cent by 2020. Legally binding five-year "carbon budgets" will be fixed 15 years ahead to keep it on course.

A new Committee on Climate Change, appointed by the Government, will provide independent expert advice. Although ministers have rejected calls for annual targets, they promised to make an annual progress report to parliament.

David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, said the Bill provided a "robust and durable" framework and expected it to become law by Easter next year. He admitted that ministers would not end up "at the Old Bailey" if the targets were missed but said the Government could face a judicial review. His officials said pressure groups would be able to apply for such a review, allowing judges to "name and shame" the Government or force it to buy more "carbon credits" to permit higher emissions.

The Tories and Liberal Democrats criticised the absence of annual targets but environmental campaigners on the Labour benches said they were unlikely to rebel over that. However, they said they might make common cause with opposition MPs in trying to amend the Bill so that it committed the Government to an 80 per cent cut.

Colin Challen, a Labour MP who is to become a climate change campaigner after the next general election, said the latest evidence pointed to the need to go further than 60 per cent. "The Bill is excellent but we need to have a higher emissions cut by 2050. We have got to aim high," he said, adding that 90 per cent might be required.

Peter Ainsworth, the shadow Environment Secretary, welcomed the measure but said that the Tories' policy review might conclude that an 80 per cent cut was needed. "There are areas where the Bill will need toughening up," he said.

Chris Huhne, the environment spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said: "The science is suggesting that we have to go higher than 60 per cent, probably around 80 per cent." He criticised the delay in introducing a full Bill rather than a draft, warning that Gordon Brown, if he becomes Prime Minister, might try to water down a measure to which Mr Blair was more committed. The Tories and Liberal Democrats expressed concern about the five-year targets period, saying that one government could try to pin the blame for missing them on its successor.

Sian Berry, principal speaker for the Green Party, said: "A target of 60 per cent by 2050 is not nearly enough - we need to achieve 90 per cent cuts by this date. Scientists say that anything less makes it probable that global temperatures will rise by more than 2C, which will have disastrous consequences."

The draft Bill marks a victory for pressure groups who have fought a long campaign for legally binding targets. Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, said: "We are delighted the Government has recognised the need for a new law to tackle climate change. But the draft Bill must be strengthened if the UK is to set a global example. It must include bigger cuts in carbon dioxide emissions and make all future governments accountable for their role in delivering these cuts."

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California, hailed Mr Blair as an "action hero" for inspiring him to introduce a law committing California to an 80 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050. In a joint interview with Mr Blair for ITV News, Mr Schwarzenegger said: "It is very clearthe Prime Minister has been a great inspiration to many, many countries all over the world... I think he is a pioneer, because he has had the guts to sign the Kyoto treaty and to show to the world that you can protect the environment and protect the economy at the same time."

The Climate Change Bill's main points

* Britain is to become the first country in the world to set legally binding targets for cutting its carbon dioxide emissions. The targets will be aimed at cutting emissions of the gas which causes global warming by between 26 per cent and 32 per cent by 2020, and 60 per cent by 2050.

* New system of five-year "carbon budgets" to cap total emissions. Limits set 15 years in advance to help business planning. Ministers say that the caps will set a "trajectory" for hitting longer term Government CO2 emissions targets.

* Courts are to be given powers to "name and shame" ministers if targets are missed.

* An Independent Committee on Climate Change will be established to advise on progress towards hitting emissions targets.

* The committee will be tasked with making annual reports to Parliament on progress towards emissions targets.

* Ministers required to produce five-year reports on the potential impact of climate change and their responses.

* Government will be granted new powers to introduce regulations to help ministers impose future controls on emissions, such as a possible future domestic emissions trading scheme.

KEY DATES...

1827 French scientist Jean-Baptiste Fourier compares the warming effect of the atmosphere to a greenhouse.

1863 John Tyndall, an Irish scientist, shows how water vapour in the atmosphere can act as a greenhouse gas by trapping heat.

1890s Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius suggests that burning fossil fuels may lead to a build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which could exacerbate the greenhouse effect.

1957 David Keeling, a US scientist, begins to monitor carbon dioxide on a long-term basis and soon finds a year-on-year rise.

1979 First World Climate Conference highlights the possibility of global warming.

1985 The first world conference on the greenhouse effect his held at Villach in Austria.

1987 Warmest year on record.

1988 US congressional hearings blame major drought in the United States on the influence of global warming. The World Meteorological Organisation set up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

1990 First report of the IPCC finds that the planet has warmed by 0.5C on average since the start of the 20th century.

1992 Climate Change Convention signed in Rio by 154 nations sets initial targets to reduce the scale of carbon dioxide emissions, based on emissions in 1990.

1995 The hottest year to date.

1997 Kyoto protocol agrees binding cuts in emissions but US says it will not ratify unless Third World countries are included.

1998 Hottest year on record, in the hottest decade.

2001 George Bush abandons Kyoto, saying the science is uncertain. IPCC publishes its third assessment report. Link strengthened between man-made emissions of carbon dioxide and global warming.

2002 The EU and Japan ratify Kyoto but Russia delays. The world experiences second hottest year on record.

2003 Heatwave kills thousands across Europe. Scientists link it directly with global warming.

2004 Russia signs up to Kyoto, so it can now come into force in 2005.

2005 Second warmest year on record globally. Kyoto protocol comes into force. Economist Nicholas Stern publishes his report saying that we cannot afford to do nothing about climate change. In August, New Orleans is devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

2006 The IPCC confirms that global warming is real and that man-made emissions of carbon dioxide are at least partly responsible. Former US vice-president Al Gore wins an Oscar for the film An Inconvenient Truth, warning about global warming.

Steve Connor

    Global warming: The climate has changed, I, 14.3.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2355957.ece

Snow wreaks travel havoc in Midlands and Wales

· Sudden thaws threaten floods in northern England
· Planes grounded as weather closes in

Saturday February 10, 2007
Guardian
Martin Wainwright and Thair Shaikh

Having brought travel chaos and unexpected school breaks to parts of the south, the 100-mile wide belt of snow moved across Wales and the Midlands last night, causing jams on motorways and leaving emergency services struggling.

In Birmingham, four centimetres of snow fell, snaring thousands of motorists in the city centre. On the M5 there were 15-mile queues from junction five at Bromsgrove, while more than 250 cars were abandoned on the A4103 near Worcester. The Royal British Legion club near Malvern in Worcestershire offered drivers accommodation overnight.

The weather also brought Birmingham airport to a temporary standstill. Shortly after 4.30pm officials suspended flights in and out of Britain's fifth largest airport, to enable teams using sweeping, blowing and ploughing equipment to clear runways of snow. More than 40 flights were cancelled or delayed before the airport reopened at 7.45pm.

The West Midlands ambulance service struggled to respond to calls because of the jams, as did the Welsh ambulance service, which had to contend with black ice and freezing fog. As many as 500 drivers were stranded in their cars along a 10-mile section of the A48 in Carmarthenshire, police said. The areas of Cardiff, Carmarthenshire, the Valleys, Swansea, and Powys were worst affected.

The Met Office issued severe weather warnings for much of the east of England for early today, with the East Midlands, north east England, Yorkshire and Humber facing up to 15cm of snow on higher ground. The pattern, which has seen some areas blanketed while others avoid snow altogether, will also continue.

Yesterday thousands of children enjoyed the second day of their extended half term as councils stuck to a "play safe" policy and kept schools shut, in the face of hazardous roads and uncertainty about how many staff would turn up. Absenteeism from work remained more than 300% above normal for the time of the year, doubling the £124m cost to business of Thursday's snowfall. The worst of the snow was on higher ground, including Exmoor and surrounding areas in north Devon, where all schools were closed.

Sudden thaws have added the danger of flooding to already waterlogged river valleys in the south, with colder temperatures due to in northern England. The hilltop Shap in Cumbria reached -8C (17.65F) yesterday, and trains on the West Coast main line were cut to an hourly service because of continual work on the tracks to beat the snow and ice.

Bookmakers William Hill cut the odds on a white Valentine's Day from 5-1 to 3-1 in London, to evens in Newcastle upon Tyne, and 5-6 on in Birmingham. The firm's spokesman, Rupert Adams, said that heavy betting at earlier, longer odds meant that snow on the day would mean "at least a six figure payout".

    Snow wreaks travel havoc in Midlands and Wales, G, 10.2.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,2010150,00.html

2pm update

Snowstorms close airports and schools

Thursday February 8, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

Snow blanketed large areas of England and Wales this morning, causing travel chaos as airports were closed and trains cancelled, while hundreds of schools closed for the day.

Thousands of air passengers faced severe delays after runways at Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Stansted and Luton airports closed for snow to be cleared, with some flights also cancelled at Heathrow and Gatwick.

All runways eventually reopened but passengers were warned to prepare for possibly long delays to flights.

The snow, heaviest in the Midlands and parts of Wales, began falling in the early hours of the morning and continued into the rush hour in many areas, disrupting public transport and making roads treacherous.

Up to 10cm fell in parts of England, with forecasters expecting around 15cm over the course of the day in some hilly areas. The snow also moved into north Wales and the north-west of England this morning.

Around 100 flights were cancelled at Stansted after the runway was closed shortly after 6am because of heavy snow, only opening after 11am.

Luton was also very badly affected, and was closed for most of the morning. Many passengers at the airport were en route to ski resorts, and some entertained themselves as they waited for flights by snowboarding down slopes around the terminal building.

Flights at Birmingham airport were grounded for a period because of snow settling on top of ice on the runway, which was reopened around 9am.

Cardiff and Bristol airports also closed their runways for a period and passengers were warned of possible delays.

Heathrow and Gatwick airports were open but also affected, with between 30 and 40 flights cancelled at each.

Education officials decided to close all schools in Birmingham, Solihull and Dudley, as well as some in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, East Anglia and Wales, as well as further north in Shropshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire.

The Highways Agency said its teams had worked through the night to grit roads, but warned drivers of treacherous conditions in many areas.

"Drivers are urged to check local weather conditions before travelling and to only travel if absolutely necessary," it warned. "Anyone travelling should take extra care on roads and make sure they carry emergency equipment including warm clothing and food and drink in case of breaking down."

Forecasters warned that as the snow eased, black ice and freezing fog could become hazards during the evening across many parts of England. Train services were also affected. Midland Mainline announced that some services for this evening had already been cancelled owing to the weather, while Virgin was operating a reduced service northwards out of London's Euston station.

Underground trains were running in London but with severe delays on some lines.

Snow had already affected Northumberland and parts of Scotland yesterday. In Grampian, 16 schools in Aberdeenshire were either closed or partially closed and the A939 Cockbridge to Tomintoul road was also shut.

The Arctic blast is not expected to last; there should be a return to wet and milder weather over the weekend.

    Snowstorms close airports and schools, G, 8.2.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2008345,00.html

10.30am update

Snowstorms close airports and schools

Thursday February 8, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

Snow blanketed large areas of England and Wales this morning, causing travel chaos as a series of airports were closed and trains cancelled, while hundreds of schools closed for the day.

Thousands of air passengers faced severe delays after runways at Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Stansted and Luton airports closed for snow to be cleared, with some flights also cancelled at Heathrow and Gatwick.

The snow, heaviest in the Midlands and parts of Wales, began falling in the early hours of the morning and was continuing into the rush hour in many areas, disrupting public transport and making roads treacherous.

Up to 5cm had fallen in parts of England, with forecasters expecting around 15cm over the course of the day in some hilly areas. The snow was also moving into north Wales and the north-west of England this morning.

"We are trying to clear the runway and get the airport open again," said a spokesman at Stansted. "But the snow is falling and that may be difficult. The terminal is very busy at the moment and there are no flights. We would advise people to check with their airlines before setting out to the airport."

The runway at Luton was closed at 6.15am and airport managers said they would not be able to inspect it until this afternoon, with all flights suspended until then.

Flights at Birmingham airport were also grounded, due to snow settling on top of ice on the runway.

"We have a number of flights boarded and ready to go, but they will not depart until we are satisfied that the runways and the taxiways are ready for use," said spokeswoman Rebecca Salter.

Staff at Cardiff airport were working to clear the runway. Bristol airport reopened its runway around 9am but warned passengers to expect delays.

Heathrow and Gatwick airports were open but also affected, with 32 flights cancelled at the former.

Education officials decided to close all schools in Birmingham, Solihull and Dudley, as well as some in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, East Anglia and Wales.

The Highways Agency said its teams had worked through the night to grit roads, but warned drivers of treacherous conditions in many areas.

"The snow is likely to continue falling throughout the morning," it warned. "Drivers are urged to check local weather conditions before travelling and to only travel if absolutely necessary. Anyone travelling should take extra care on roads and make sure they carry emergency equipment including warm clothing and food and drink in case of breaking down."

Forecasters warned that as the snow eased, black ice and freezing fog could become a hazard during the evening across many parts of England.

Train services were also affected. Midland Mainline passengers announced that some services for this evening had already been cancelled due to the weather. Commuter trains travelling north out of London were also likely to be affected.

Underground trains were running in London but with severe delays on some lines and a few stations closed.

"We are working to minimise any disruptions but passengers should check the latest travel information before setting off on their journeys this morning," a Transport for London spokesman said.

Snow had already affected Northumberland and parts of Scotland yesterday. In Grampian, 16 schools in Aberdeenshire were either closed or partially closed and the A939 Cockbridge to Tomintoul road was also shut.

The Arctic blast is not expected to last; there should be a return to wet and milder weather over the weekend.

    Snowstorms close airports and schools, G, 8.2.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2008345,00.html

Britain faces heaviest snow in years

Forecasters are warning
that severe weather is heading for Britain

Tuesday February 6, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Press Association

Forecasters issued an early severe weather warning today as Britain prepared to plunge back into winter with heavy snowfalls predicted for some areas of the country.

Up to 15cm (six inches) of snow could fall in south and mid Wales tomorrow night and Thursday morning with up to five centimetres - around two inches - predicted for London and southern England on Thursday.

Southern England could see snowfalls of up to 10cm, or nearly four inches, in areas of high ground.

Paul Knightley, forecaster for MeteoGroup UK, the weather division of the Press Association, said cold air from the north, mixing with an "active" mild weather system from the Atlantic would bring the snow.

There have already been small snowfalls in the south-west and parts of eastern England will see some snow tonight.

"On Wednesday night and Thursday morning a much more active weather system comes in from the south-west, seeing quite a significant band of sleet and snow move into south-west England and south Wales and eventually by morning across much of Wales into the Midlands and into the London area and southern England as well as the south-east," he said.

"The snow will be potentially disruptive in London because it is predicted for rush hour and is going to cause some significant disruption. It will probably be some of the heaviest snow in the last couple of years in the London area."

The Met Office issued an early warning of severe weather.

A statement said: "The Met Office is expecting a period of heavy snow to develop across south-west England and much of Wales during Wednesday night and this is expected to extend across the Midlands, London, the south-east and East Anglia during Thursday morning.

"There is also a risk that the snow will extend into parts of northern England for a time before dying away from all areas during Thursday afternoon."

    Britain faces heaviest snow in years, G, 6.2.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,2007072,00.html

Global warming: the final warning

According to yesterday's UN report,
the world will be a much hotter place by 2100.
This will be the impact ...

Published: 03 February 2007
The Independent

+2.4°: Coral reefs almost extinct

In North America, a new dust-bowl brings deserts to life in the high plains states, centred on Nebraska, but also wipes out agriculture and

cattle ranching as sand dunes appear across five US states, from Texas in the south to Montana in the north.

Rising sea levels accelerate as the Greenland ice sheet tips into irreversible melt, submerging atoll nations and low-lying deltas. In Peru, disappearing Andean glaciers mean 10 million people face water shortages. Warming seas wipe out the Great Barrier Reef and make coral reefs virtually extinct throughout the tropics. Worldwide, a third of all species on the planet face extinction

+3.4°: Rainforest turns to desert

The Amazonian rainforest burns in a firestorm of catastrophic ferocity, covering South America with ash and smoke. Once the smoke clears, the interior of Brazil has become desert, and huge amounts of extra carbon have entered the atmosphere, further boosting global warming. The entire Arctic ice-cap disappears in the summer months, leaving the North Pole ice-free for the first time in 3 million years. Polar bears, walruses and ringed seals all go extinct. Water supplies run short in California as the Sierra Nevada snowpack melts away. Tens of millions are displaced as the Kalahari desert expands across southern Africa

+4.4°: Melting ice caps displace millions

Rapidly-rising temperatures in the Arctic put Siberian permafrost in the melt zone, releasing vast quantities of methane and CO2. Global temperatures keep on rising rapidly in consequence. Melting ice-caps and sea level rises displace more than 100 million people, particularly in Bangladesh, the Nile Delta and Shanghai. Heatwaves and drought make much of the sub-tropics uninhabitable: large-scale migration even takes place within Europe, where deserts are growing in southern Spain, Italy and Greece. More than half of wild species are wiped out, in the worst mass extinction since the end of the dinosaurs. Agriculture collapses in Australia

+5.4°: Sea levels rise by five metres

The West Antarctic ice sheet breaks up, eventually adding another five metres to global sea levels. If these temperatures are sustained, the entire planet will become ice-free, and sea levels will be 70 metres higher than today. South Asian society collapses due to the disappearance of glaciers in the Himalayas, drying up the Indus river, while in east India and Bangladesh, monsoon floods threaten millions. Super-El Niños spark global weather chaos. Most of humanity begins to seek refuge away from higher temperatures closer to the poles. Tens of millions of refugees force their way into Scandanavia and the British Isles. World food supplies run out

+6.4°: Most of life is exterminated

Warming seas lead to the possible release of methane hydrates trapped in sub-oceanic sediments: methane fireballs tear across the sky, causing further warming. The oceans lose their oxygen and turn stagnant, releasing poisonous hydrogen sulphide gas and destroying the ozone layer. Deserts extend almost to the Arctic. "Hypercanes" (hurricanes of unimaginable ferocity) circumnavigate the globe, causing flash floods which strip the land of soil. Humanity reduced to a few survivors eking out a living in polar refuges. Most of life on Earth has been snuffed out, as temperatures rise higher than for hundreds of millions of years.

Mark Lynas

    Global warming: the final warning, I, 3.2.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2211566.ece

Campaign aims

to reduce the mountains of waste

Published: 22 January 2007
The Independent
By Michael McCarthy,
Martin Hickman and Geneviève Roberts

The shrink-wrapped swede, bought from a London supermarket at the weekend, says it all. Why on earth add a skin to something that's got a tough enough skin of its own?

Wrapping that's entirely unnecessary is not confined to root vegetables: it's everywhere. And today The Independent launches a campaign to highlight how environmentally unfriendly, how problematic and - not least - how irritating the phenomenon of packaging and packaging waste has become.

We are asking readers to be at the forefront of it, to bring home to supermarkets and other major retailers how imperative is the need to slim down radically the avalanche of bags, trays, wrappers, boxes, parcels, cartons, cardboard, plastic, foil and clingfilm that is sweeping over our lives.

Packaging presents a problem for several reasons. Firstly, it uses up huge volumes of natural resources: oil for plastic trays, bags and wrappers; trees for paper, cartons, and cardboard; aluminium for tins and cans; glass for jars and bottles. About eight per cent of global oil production is used to make plastic, of which a quarter is thought to end up in packaging. Secondly, climate change is hastened by the greenhouse gas emissions from the energy used to make and transport the containers.

Thirdly, there is the problem of disposal. The packaging industry claims that, with the quadrupling of recycling rates in the past decade, 60 per cent of packaging is now recycled; but even so, it admits that five million tons of it is dumped in holes in the ground. The UK's landfill sites are filling up and finding new ones is a problem. In 2002, the Environment Agency warned that sites in the South-east would be full in seven years' time. New EU regulations require the UK to cut waste going to landfill by half by 2013, and to a quarter of the current level by 2020.

Fourthly, packaging itself is expensive and adds to retail prices. The Government's Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) says that families spend £470 on packaging each year, one-sixth of their food budget.

Finally, packaging is now often designed to encourage over-consumption, and it particularly angers consumers. Many people who have fancied an apple will have been irritated by the fact that they may only have been able to buy four of them, sitting on an unrecyclable plastic tray, surrounded by clingfilm. In market research, stores have picked up packaging as one of the issues that most grates with customers. The industry argues that, as products need to be protected in travelling to reach the shops, under-packaging creates more waste.

But packaging performs another, commercial, function: it engages and entices the customer, and often exaggerates the size of a product. This is particularly noticeable in the rapidly growing trend for seasonal merchandise, whether for Christmas toys, Easter eggs or Halloween masks.

We are launching the campaign at what is a key moment for deciding on how we handle our waste products in the future, for two reasons. Firstly, the Government will soon produce a national waste strategy, the first for seven years; we believe new measures to force a cutback in packaging should be part of it.

Secondly, most of the major supermarkets have begun to realise that they do have to act on packaging, and have signed an agreement to tackle it. Furthermore, only last week two of them, Marks and Spencer and Tesco, announced multimillion-pound environmental programmes that included packaging reductions. Yet we believe that all of them need to go further and faster, and to this end we are inviting Independent readers to highlight the worst, most unnecessary and most ridiculously over-packaged items they can find on supermarket shelves, or in other outlets: we will take them up with the retailer concerned, and see if they act on it. We feel the campaign will touch a nerve with the public; environmental and consumer groups such as Friends of the Earth and the Women's Institute are backing it strongly.

For whatever the promises of Tesco and its fellows, just a moderate shopping-bag full of supermarket groceries (with that swede at the top of our list) vividly illustrated how strongly wedded they still are to the packaging way of doing things.

The result is remarkable: of the 30 million tons or so of household rubbish we produce every year, about a quarter by weight, and as much as 60 per cent by volume, is packaging waste.

"There's still no room for complacency, but things are moving the right way," said Jane Bickerstaffe, the director of the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment.

That's as may be - but the point of our campaign is simply to get retailers to use less of it.

Take that shrink-wrapped swede. We asked the supermarket chain Morrisons - not the only supermarket guilty of over-packaging - who had it on the shelves of their store in Camden Town, London, why they thought shrink-wrapping a swede was necessary. The company replied: "The packaging ensures the product is fresh and minimises potential damage."

Well, maybe you think that is reasonable. But maybe you don't.

So if you're the sort of person who thinks that shrink-wrapping a swede is verging on bonkers, have a look around your local supermarket and see if you can find anything just as bad - or even something to top it. We will take it up with the retailer.

How you can help

* Do you have an example of absurd packaging? Have you been infuriated by the waste that came with something you bought recently? If so, tell us the details and we will highlight it in 'The Independent' and take it up with the companies concerned. Send your examples to waste@ independent.co.uk

'The amount of excess packaging is preposterous'

Peter Tatchell, gay rights campaigner

I'm supporting The Independent's campaign, because I've long been active in green issues. A lot of electrical goods come with a surplus of packaging . And it always annoys me when you see fruit and vegetables individually wrapped.

Antony Beevor, historian

I completely support The Independent's campaign, because the amount of excessive packaging is preposterous. Getting into some packaging is almost impossible: everything from food to razors comes sealed in semi-rigid plastic.

Meera Syal, actress

I'm a fiendish recycler so it annoys me that so much packaging just has to be thrown away. Maybe the supermarkets should take the approach of the farmers' markets - it's so much nicer when everything is all out in the open.

Claire Rayner, agony aunt

Packaging is the very devil to get rid of. You try to recycle, and they take away your cardboard or your glass, but they can't take plastics or great slabs of polystyrene. Things like fruit and vegetables do not need to be wrapped up at all.

Ralph Steadman, cartoonist

We don't need any packaging at all. The whole thing is ridiculous: you find things like parsnips sealed in clingfilm and then wrapped in a plastic bag. People should refuse packaging and just put what they buy straight in their bags.

Tony Juniper, director, Friends of the Earth

I'm constantly trying to avoid unnecessary packaging, from apples wrapped in plastic to the free bag you're given with everything else. A lot of packaging is more about advertising than protecting the product.

    Campaign aims to reduce the mountains of waste, I, 22.1.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2175016.ece

Storm death toll

hits 13 as insurers count cost

· Winds reached 100mph in worst gales for 17 years
· Damage claims could total hundreds of millions

Saturday January 20, 2007
Guardian
Jill Treanor and Martin Wainwright

The final bill for the fierce storm that battered the UK this week is likely to run into hundreds of millions of pounds with insurance companies inundated yesterday with calls for repairs to shattered roofs, chimneys, and cars flattened by falling trees.

Gusty weather continued to claim victims and add to the damage toll yesterday, as the country began to limp back to normal. The number of dead rose to 13 as the Meteorological Office confirmed that the storm was Britain's worst for 17 years with the highest windspeeds topping 100mph at Huntingdon.

Respite will be short-lived, a spokesman warned, with much colder temperatures due early next week as cold fronts converge on the western seaboard. Transport links and power supplies were still uncertain in some areas last night and several thousand households remained without electricity.

Norwich Union, a subsidiary of Aviva which insures one in five homes, said it had received up to four times more calls than usual, while Royal Bank of Scotland, owner of Direct Line and Churchill, was forced to increase staff in its call centres to cope.

The Association of British Insurers gave an early estimate for a bill in the "low 100s of millions" of pounds. But assessing the extent of the damage will take weeks as insurers will need to send loss adjusters to the most severely damaged properties.

Commuters into London and Manchester continued to face severe delays yesterday morning and there were still cancellations and urgent line repairs at the end of the day.

Tributes were paid to the people killed by falling trees, walls and flying debris. The dead included the managing director of Birmingham airport, Richard Heard, and a London toddler, Saurav Ghai, described by his family as "a beautiful boy, smiling from the day he was born". He died in Belsize Park, north London, when a wall collapsed, also injuring his childminder.

Further names of storm victims were released by police. They included lorry driver Christine Doran, 49, of Moston, Manchester, who died when her truck was blown off the Skipton bypass in North Yorkshire, and Martin Hunt, 58, of Broxbourne in Essex, who was killed by a collapsing roof canopy as he refuelled his car near Preston. A woman crushed by a falling wall in Marple, Cheshire, was Joyce Cosadinos who worked at a local optician's, and a man who died in a collision with a fire engine on the way to an aircraft emergency landing at Liverpool airport was Derek Kelly, 46, from Huyton in Liverpool.

British Airways cancelled 34 incoming flights to Heathrow and Gatwick airports yesterday as arriving travellers described hair-raising flights on Thursday at the height of the 99mph storm. One passenger on a Lanzarote service to Leeds-Bradford, which finally landed at Liverpool after aborting attempts at Humberside and Manchester, said the plane "went everywhere, up, down and sideways, everyone was sick - we had been told it would be bad but it was far worse than anyone imagined".

One early Eurostar train to Paris was cancelled but the service then ran normally, unlike the two rail routes to Scotland up the east and west coasts which continued to suffer serious disruption. The Stansted Express was cut to a half-hour service and Silverlink cancelled all services between Watford and St Albans.

Stations in Manchester reopened in the morning and London Bridge was declared safe after complete closure following a partial roof collapse. The Highways Agency said all roads had been cleared of debris and overturned lorries and were operating normally.

Nineteen flood warnings were issued by the Environment Agency last night, although downpours brought welcome relief to aquifers in parts of the south-east, where hosepipe bans still remain in force after last year's prolonged drought. Power companies reported 30,000 homes without power in Wales after 300 separate major faults, and 19,000 in East Anglia.

In Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, residents were allowed back into three terraced streets whose felt roofs peeled away in huge strips at the height of the storm. A stricken container ship, the 62,000 tonne MSC Napoli which was abandoned by her 26 crew off Cornwall at the height of the storm, was under tow by a French tug last night and making for Lyme Bay in Dorset.

Wildlife was also hit by the extreme conditions and the Marine Conservation Society urged walkers on beaches to look out for stranded marine turtles blown in by strong south-westerly gales.

Insurance claims for broken glass or a few missing roof tiles are meanwhile already being processed, and insurers damped down talk of record payouts. The ABI said the last major storm in 1990 caused a clean-up bill of £2bn while the storms of 1987 cost £1.5bn.

    Storm death toll hits 13 as insurers count cost, G, 20.1.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,1994900,00.html

Boy, 2,

killed by falling wall

is among 12 dead

as Britain is battered

by 100mph storms

· Crew who abandoned ship plucked from lifeboats
· Pupils hit by school roof taken to hospital

Friday January 19, 2007
Guardian
Steven Morris and Riazat Butt

A two-year-old boy was one of at least 12 people killed as winds gusting up to 100mph ripped through Britain yesterday. The boy died when a two-metre wall collapsed on him and his childminder as they walked in north London.

Three lorry drivers were killed in separate accidents, one of them when her vehicle was blown off the road and ended up partly in a canal. A man died when his car collided with a fire engine responding to an emergency and an airport executive died when his car was hit by a tree branch.

The crew of a British container ship was lifted out of lifeboats after abandoning the vessel off Cornwall. Salvage experts were last night trying to stop the ship, feared to contain chemicals including pesticides, from sinking in mountainous seas.

The boy, named by a relative last night as Saurav Ghai, was pronounced dead in hospital after the wall collapsed in Belsize Park, north London. His childminder was treated in hospital. Police and health and safety executives will investigate the accident. The relative, who would not give his name, paid tribute to the child. "He was a beautiful boy - he was smiling from the day he was born, that's how we will remember him."

Richard Heard, 49, the managing director of Birmingham Airport, died when a tree branch hit his BMW X5 near Bridgnorth, Shropshire. The airport said Mr Heard had been on the way to work when the accident happened, adding: "Richard was a wonderful person, who brought us strong leadership with a human touch. Our immediate thoughts are with Richard's family."

A lorry driver died when her vehicle left the road, overturned and landed in a canal at Skipton, North Yorkshire. Another lorry driver was killed in an accident on the A49, south of Ludlow in Shropshire and a third, a German man, when his truck flipped over in Chester.

Elsewhere, an elderly man died after a shed roof was blown on to him in Keadby, Lincolnshire. In Marple, near Stockport, Greater Manchester, which was hit by some of the strongest winds, a 60-year-old woman was killed when a wall fell on her. A man died and another suffered serious injuries after their car was struck by a fire engine en route to an emergency at Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

On the Wirral a man in his 80s died of a suspected heart attack as he tried to secure fencing. Another man, named as 61-year-old Derek Barley, died after he was struck by a tree in Cheshire. A man was killed after being blown into a metal shutter at an industrial estate in the Strangeways area of Manchester. A passenger in a Ford Fiesta died when a tree fell on to a car at Streatley in Berkshire.

A sea rescue was launched after distress signals were sent from the cargo ship MS Napoli. The London-based vessel was stranded 50 miles off the Lizard, Cornwall, in a force nine gale with a hole in its side and a flooded engine room.

All 26 crew abandoned the vessel and were plucked out of a lifeboat in a mission described by rescuers as one of their most difficult ever. Crew member Nicholas Colbourn, 20, said: "It was so cramped and hot in the liferaft - I was so dehydrated and there was lots of throwing up."

Salvage experts were trying to secure the vessel last night but did not expect it to sink or the chemicals it is believed to have been carrying to seep out.

Scores of other people were injured or had narrow escapes. Five people suffered injuries described as "serious but not life-threatening" when a building partially collapsed in Warrington, Cheshire.

A 66-year-old man is in a critical condition after hitting his head on a metal cabin when he was knocked over by wind in Hyde, Greater Manchester. Two boys, including one thought to have suffered spinal injuries, were taken to hospital after a tree fell on them in Merseyside. Three children were taken to hospital after being struck by part of the roof of their school, Blake Valley technical college, in Hednesford, Staffordshire. Two men were treated for exposure and hypothermia after getting lost in the Peak District.

The storms also caused discomfort for wildlife. A seal pup was rescued on Saturday after being washed over a sea wall into a street in Cockenzie, East Lothian. It was being looked after at a rescue centre. On the south coast, visitors were urged to report any stranded turtles blown in by the wind to the RSPCA.

Boy, 2, killed by falling wall is among 12 dead as Britain is battered by 100mph storms, G, 19.1.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,1994211,00.html