The Future?

[JennyMorgan]

If I believe what some people claim then the sea will break through and flood the Broads at some point in the next fifty years. If this is really the future then why are worrying about planning for example? Why are we building roads and bridges if within fifty years they are going to be under water? Sea levels are rising, ground levels are sinking, are we returning to the fabled 'Great Estuary? I've been on this earth for seventy years and my father for seventy years before that and I don't believe that things have changed much over that time so why should things accelerate, as some are predicting, over the next fifty? Just curious! Does any one really know? 

[Smoggy]

That will silence the "wrong boat for the broads" brigade.....

[OldBerkshireBoy]

Barman, I`ll take whatever he`s drinking!  

[JennyMorgan]

18 minutes ago, OldBerkshireBoy said:

Barman, I`ll take whatever he`s drinking!  

Adnam's Broadside, good Suffolk Ale   

https://www.adnams.co.uk/beer/shop-by-taste_1/ale/adnams-broadside-bottles.htm#

Non of that foreign, fizz-pop stuff!!

[finny]

The Dutch have been living below sea level for quite some time. Personally my outlook is similar to yours peter 

[MotorBoater]

Around 60 years ago I was in a class of 10/11 year olds being taught that the Southeast was slowly sinking and the Northwest was rising, a geological certainty apparently, hence 30 plus children having nightmares for a few nights about Poseidon coming after them. By the time I left school the emergency had been downgraded to perhaps something like an inch or two every 100 years or so, Poseidon was still coming but for the moment he had missed the bus.

Science at work.

The intervening years have seen vast sums spent on flood defenses in areas deemed at risk, some of which has worked, although I think the jury is still out in Devon and Cornwall. We heard much about "Global Warming" but this soon morphed into "Climate Change" when the science went awry amid accusations of selective data use and manipulation.

Let's be clear about one thing, before the High Priests of Climate Change hang me out to dry, if the huge rafts of plastic in the Pacific teach us anything it is that we do not treat our home planet with enough respect. Whether or not Climate Change is real we haven't paid enough attention to that.

Science at work.

Many governments around the world pour enormous amounts into CC projects yet I don't feel as if the mysteries of planet Earth get a similar level of support e.g. what is going on under our feet, from what I was reading a couple of weeks ago if a Yellowstone Park monster eruption occurs, as scientists believe it will, eventually, it will take about one third of the planets inhabitants out with it. That should take care of Climate Change scenarios for a while.

Science at work.

Fast forward to now where I can get a 10 day weather forecast and watch it continually adjusted from day to day as they change their minds.

Science at work ?

Poseidon perhaps twitches a bit in his slumbers but if he does truly awaken, and the Great Estuary comes to pass then no doubt Climate Change will get the blame. Never mind that we have been fighting him for centuries.

No doubt King John would have blamed CC for the loss of his treasure had that excuse been available.

I can't see me being around in fifty years time but I will pass on the warning to my son. It seems his options will be flippers in the Northeast or face masks in the Northwest.

[Vaughan]

I remember that map from years ago. There used to be a print of it in the New Inn at Horning.

It was supposed to "prove" the Estuary theory by showing how the principle Broads churches were all on the edges of the estuary, as the materials to build them had been brought by water.

 

[Smoggy]

The reason for the north rising and the south sinking is all the Scots moving down here....

[Cheesey69]

I bite.

Humans think a 100 years is a long time and it is on our time scale.

But not to nature when a million years is considered a second of our time.

Remember the time the weather forecaster had a magnetic stick on cloud vaguely over norfolk? That was as accurate as they could get. Sometime today, over a vast area somewhere in Norfolk, it will rain. And a day in advance was all they could guarantee and anything after was based on general trends.

Now they can get within an hour. general trends up to a week are really in the ball park on a national level.

Millions of variables calculated on a hourly basis on a level impossible 30 years ago.

science at work.

The thames barrier design to close once or twice a year.  During the barrier's entire history up to June 2020, there have been 193 flood defence closures.

science at work.

Most people judge time scale to their own lives, so the pace of global sea level rise has more than doubled from 1.4 mm per year throughout most of the twentieth century to 3.6 mm per year from 2006–2015 may seem like nothing but the changes are slight, unnoticed until you do. 

Put it this way, If i need dentistry, I wont go down to the Dog and Duck ask a plumber to do it. I will find an expert.

If I need an engine rebuild, I wont ask an accountant to do it.

If I need information about the climate, I'll ask someone who has access to all the the information.

Not The Daily Mail.

[MauriceMynah]

I have some questions !

Are we saying that in my lifetime I'll be able to cruise OVER Potter Heigham bridge at any state of the tide?

Are we saying that the reason BA don't do a thorough job of dredging the lower Bure is that the extra water going out to sea will raise sea levels which would in turn then go on to flood Potter Heigham and then nobody could get under it's bridge?

and Are we saying that I need to get out more?

[grendel]

yes MM

[Smoggy]

21 minutes ago, grendel said:

yes MM

Certainly yes to the last sentence.

[marshman]

Plenty of scope to take up the profession of ferryman then!! Unless we are all using rockets like the mountain rescue propose doing in the lakes!

Still if the outlook around here looks bleak, think about poor old Downham Market and surrounds!!!!

[Smoggy]

7 minutes ago, marshman said:

Still if the outlook around here looks bleak, think about poor old Downham Market and surrounds!!!!

That will be regarded as improvements....

I have to say if people think the broads are low lying a trip through salters lode lock and along well creek is quite an eye opener.

You drop down off the tidal gt.ouse to see just the roofline of the hgv's on the road beside, when on that road you look down on the fields a good way, and you only ever get let through the lock after the tide has dropped enough to allow headroom under the bridge.

Another spot is prickwillow pumping engine museum, kings Lynn high water mark is up on the mezzanine and you can see the drop to the fields through the back window, if ISIS discover Denver sluices and salters lode Ely will be an island again.

[JennyMorgan]

3 hours ago, MauriceMynah said:

Are we saying that in my lifetime I'll be able to cruise OVER Potter Heigham bridge at any state of the tide?

It will all depend on what you are on at the time! Is your body up to another fifty years of misuse? 

[JennyMorgan]

6 hours ago, Vaughan said:

It was supposed to "prove" the Estuary theory by showing how the principle Broads churches were all on the edges of the estuary, as the materials to build them had been brought by water.

It is quite uncanny in that those principle churches are placed as they are. Join them up with a pencil line and hey presto, the Great Estuary emerges! I'm almost convinced!

[TheQ]

More like back then they had sense and built the churches on the Higher ground.

Much of the land we see today around the broads was marshes back then,  without the drainages boards it would be again.. 

Also  travel by land was by muddy difficult track, travel by water was easy, so you build your prominent buildings on high ground near water.. Hence all the old monasteries were on the coast or by water with connections, Lindisfarne, Iona Abbey, St Benets .

I'll be on an Island if the tide comes in.. just sail to the sailing club..

[Smoggy]

Churches are on hills for the same reason they are built tall, to be closer to God.

It's why my beer cellar is so deep, I know which way I'll be going.

[TheQ]

1 hour ago, Smoggy said:

Churches are on hills for the same reason they are built tall, to be closer to God.

It's why my beer cellar is so deep, I know which way I'll be going.

outside of Norfolk there are plenty of churches built in valleys

[coolcat]

16 hours ago, Smoggy said:

That will silence the "wrong boat for the broads" brigade.....

You and I will be fine

[Smoggy]

43 minutes ago, TheQ said:

outside of Norfolk there are plenty of churches built in valleys

People from outside norfolk don't need his help as much....

[Vaughan]

57 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

People from outside norfolk don't need his help as much....

This reminds me of the old story of a Vicar, newly appointed to a Norfolk country parish.  When he arrived, the vicarage garden was totally overgrown and more like a jungle.  With all the work he had to do, getting settled into a new parish, he needed help with it.  So the churchwarden recommended old "Billy Wossnairme" from the village, who could come round and and sort out the garden, for a few Bob an hour.

Old Billy took a look and said "well at least oi 'er got meself a fresh start!"

A couple of weeks later the vicar came to see old Billy to see how he was getting on.

"Oh Billy, you have made such a difference! That is splendid."

"Isn't it marvellous what can be achieved, when God and Man work together?"

To which old Billy replied - "If you say so vicar, but yew orter a seen it when God had it to his-self!"

 

 

[Ray]

Whatever the cause coastal erosion on the east coast is a fact. If "managed retreat" is the way it is dealt with then inevitably there will be an incursion.

I live a short walk from the 2nd highest church tower in Norfolk... it's a handy thing to remember on stormy nights! 🙂

[YnysMon]

Reminds me of one of Dorothy L Sayers murder mystery novels, where a village in the fens gets flooded and all the inhabitants end up together in the church until the flood waters recede. The novel is The Nine Tailors (the tailors being an extended ring of the church’s bells). The victim died up in the belfry.  

[OldBerkshireBoy]

1 minute ago, YnysMon said:

Reminds me of one of Dorothy L Sayers murder mystery novels, where a village in the fens gets flooded and all the inhabitants end up together in the church until the flood waters recede. The novel is The Nine Tailors (the tailors being an extended ring of the church’s bells). The victim died up in the belfry.  

Was it the butler with the candlestick that done the deed?