Flooding

Britain currently has the rare pleasure of weather really worth talking about, and the enticing possibility of blaming someone for it. It’s a wonder anyone’s talking about anything else.

Of course, in reality the floods were caused by the highest level of sustained rainfall for centuries, probably caused by spiralling global carbon emissions, according to the Met Office and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. But that would kind of make us all partly responsible, and no-one wants to scapegoat themselves, so let’s review our options for who we can pin the flooding on.

Molly is our online marketing coordinator and is next up in the blog relay, a whistle-stop tour of Greenpeace staff here in the UK. Click here to catch up on the other entries.

In January 2005, the Onilahy River in southwest Madagascar flooded. Nineteen people were killed and thousands left homeless. The cyclone that caused it was probably exacerbated by climate change; the landslides that followed were definitely made worse by extensive deforestation in the area.

The flood was little reported outside Madagascar. Similar events, caused or worsened by environmental destruction, happen all over the world on a regular basis, and most of them don't make the news. The only reason I know about it is because I was there.

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