Fishermen back sanctions against Iceland over mackerel catch

Caroline Davies in the Guardian (UK): Evoking memories of the "cod wars" of the 1970s, fishermen are backing a threat of sanctions against Icelandic vessels in a move that could wreak havoc on Britain's fish-processing industry and put jobs at risk. Incensed at Iceland's decision to massively increase its mackerel quotas, the European Union is considering sanctions which could include a ban on Icelandic fishing boats landing any catch at EU ports.

The sanction threat is being supported by Scottish skippers who fear the amount of mackerel they can catch could be slashed if Iceland, and also the Faroe Islands, continue to award themselves huge quotas. Mackerel is Scotland's most valuable fish, with £164m worth landed in 2011 out of a total UK landed catch of £205m.

However, Grimsby, the UK's major fish-processing centre, and the Humber area rely heavily on Icelandic seafood, particularly cod.

So-called "mackerel wars" have raged since 2008 when Iceland, which previously caught little of the fish, unilaterally increased its quota after the numbers in its waters increased dramatically – believed to be as a result of warmer waters due to climate change.

Now, the EU is under pressure from fishermen in Scotland and Norway to bring in trade restrictions after some 12 rounds of talks have failed to reach any agreement, or make any progress....

Shot by Jessica, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Year of extremes shows cuts to UK flood fund were short-sighted, say critics

This is South Devon: Almost 8,000 homes and businesses were flooded in 2012, as the UK was battered by repeated heavy rain, storms and floods. Defences protected almost 200,000 properties, but with spending on such measures falling at a time when floods are predicted to get worse with climate change, the Government has come under fire for cutting the flooding budget.

There are hopes that 2013 will bring drier weather after England's wettest year on record, which affected thousands of families and businesses England and Wales experienced ten separate flooding events between April and December after widespread drought gave way to the wettest summer in a century, with unusually high rainfall totals and river levels around the country.

Parts of Devon and Cornwall saw more than 24 hours of continuous rain at the end of April. In late June, Honister in Cumbria saw eight inches (200mm) of rainfall in one day, the Environment Agency said.

...But spending on flood protection measures fell in the last financial year – the first full year since the spending review – from £354 million on new projects in 2010-2011 to £259 million in 2011-2012. The amount spent on maintenance also fell, from £172 million to £156 million last year.

The devastation repeatedly wrought on the country prompted the Treasury to provide another £120 million in November for defences over the next couple of years, focusing on places where they would have the greatest economic benefit...

The flooded watermeadows west of Clyst St. Mary have been lightly frozen in the first real cold night of the 2009-2010 winter. The ice was beginning to make cracking noises as it started to thaw and the water was going down. Shot by Jonathan Billinger, Wikimedia Commongs via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

UK flood warnings remain in place after deluge

Andrew Hough in the Telegraph (UK): Authorities warned of a continued threat of flooding to homes across the Midlands, northeast, West Country, south west and Wales. Today, almost 80 flood warnings remained in force across swathes of the south while more than 110 flooding alerts were in place.

Flood defences remain in place along parts of the River Severn, in Shropshire and Worcestershire. The Environment Agency said the river should peak on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning. Officials said they expected river levels to recede shortly after.

Parts of North Yorkshire also remain under threat from rising groundwater levels. Forecasters said there was a risk of a few showers over the next few days after a fine and dry start to the New Year.

An Environment Agency spokesman said: "Looking at the forecast it looks like a few showers which hopefully won't send the levels back up again. "There could be some spells of surface water flooding around the patch in the next week as well, so it's not quite time to put the sandbags away."....

A UK traffic sign

Woman rescued from floodwaters as Britain braces for more bad weather

Amelia Hill in the Guardian (UK): A woman spent almost an hour clinging to a tree in the middle of a fast-flowing flooded river before a police helicopter spotted her in the early hours of Sunday morning. The swollen waters had swept the unnamed woman from her car and she was fighting to stay afloat when the Devon and Cornwall police helicopter saw her.

Rescued by a RNLI lifeboat, she was treated for exposureThe woman was then reunited with a man and a child who had been trapped in the car when the River Taw broke its banks and had been rescued by firefighters. The dramatic rescue came as forecasters predicted more rain would fall in the next few days: 165 flood warnings were in place across all regions of England – as well as in Wales.

The wet but warm weather has led to dozens of people being moved to emergency shelters, with more warned they too could be forced to leave their homes to escape the rising floodwaters. The Met Office has issued a yellow alert for rain on Christmas Day, covering Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Devon and Somerset.

Rail services warned that trains were so badly affected that many of those hoping to travel to see friends and family for Christmas must expect considerable disruption. Those using the First Great Western rail service have been told not to make "non-essential" journeys.

Scotland has had 30 flood warnings, with Perthshire, Tayside, and Angus particularly badly affected. And significant flooding in Stonehaven, near Aberdeen, has led to about 60 people being relocated and a reception centre being set up at Mackie Academy....

Winter floods at Bickleigh in 2006, shot by Pauline Burden, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Freezing fog grounds British flights

Terra Daily via AFP: Severe fog has forced the cancellation of dozens of flights scheduled to take-off and land at Britain's airports on Wednesday with more disruption expected later in the day. Flights to Warsaw, Nice, Stockholm, Aberdeen and several German cities were among 20 cancelled by London's Heathrow.

"It's better to cancel flights when there's fog because in fog you can't land as many planes per hour because you have to leave more space between the planes," said a spokesman for the airport. The smaller London City Airport also reported disruption.

A message on the airport's Twitter page said: "Visibility has not improved, flight disruptions are present and expected to continue until further notice. Please call your airline for info."

Britain is in the middle of a cold snap with temperatures hitting minus 10C (14F) in some parts of the country. "The fog is currently pretty widespread," explained Julian Mayes, forecaster for MeteoGroup. "It's currently located over central England as a large area of low cloud, which is descending down as fog....

Freezing fog in the valley of Middlehope Burn (December 2008), shot by Helen Wilkinson, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK,  under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Messing with natural habitats only makes flooding worse

Tony Juniper in the Independent (UK): Recent flooding has caused widespread misery, disruption and large-scale economic damage. One sector that has been hard hit is insurance. Because flooding is becoming more frequent due to climate change, some areas are becoming uninsurable. Some 200,000 properties could soon see withdrawal of flood insurance and talks between government and the Association of British Insurers are yet to reach agreement on how insurance cover might be continued for those properties at highest risk.

Alongside debates on how to maintain insurance cover, another natural focus in the wake of deluges of the kind recently experienced is about the quality and extent of traditional flood defences. All this is fine, but for me there is a piece missing. It relates to both these questions and is about the vital role that could be played by so-called ‘green infrastructure’.

While the risk of flooding can be reduced at least in the short-term through the building of hard defences (such as higher levies and bigger storm drains), approaches that go more with the flow of nature can be both cheaper and more effective. For example, peat bogs on hills store rainwater and release it slowly into streams and rivers. When the bogs are damaged, heavy rain runs off more quickly and can cause problems below.

...With these and many other experiences in mind, various bodies including conservation groups, water companies and local authorities are beginning to invest in trees and peatland restoration as cost-effective measures to reduce flood risk (and improve water quality). Peat and trees also contain a lot of carbon, so this way of cutting flood risk is also a way to help reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air....

Damage from the 2007 flood in Sheffield, UK, shot by Dave Pickersgill, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

UK floods: deadlock between insurers and government must be broken

James Meadway has a comment in the Guardian (UK): Severe floods have again pushed the question of environmental protection to the centre of political debate. A disaster for those affected, the floods have arrived just as talks between insurers and the government are on the verge of breakdown. A deal struck in 2000 to enable those living in flood-prone areas to continue to receive insurance expires next year. As yet it shows no signs of renewal. Insurers want guarantees from government that flood protection will be maintained. The government has hinted that the insurers are using the crisis to push for an unfair settlement. About 200,000 homes are at risk. They are the collateral damage of a collision between a government chasing short-term savings and an industry chasing short-term profits.

Flood defence expenditure has been cut by 25% since 2010, while 294 schemes that should have received funding since then have yet to be started. The costs apparently saved in cuts to flood defences are more than outweighed by the costs of repairing damage afterwards...

....If government has been recklessly short-sighted, the insurance companies are little better. The five biggest firms account for half the domestic market between them. The largest, Aviva, had revenues of £50bn last year. Floods are expensive for insurers. But these huge corporations are more than big enough to take the cost. Guarantees on government flood defence spending are, for them, little more than a means to protect profits – a public subsidy for their shareholders. Householders in high-risk areas still lose out, with reports of those attempting to renew their insurance in recent months being quoted hugely inflated prices.

The combination of the coalition's mindless commitment to austerity, and the insurance companies' scrabble for profits is producing a deadlock. Breaking it decisively would require two actions by government. The first is an immediate increase in flood defence spending in affected areas, as recommended by the Pitt review five years ago – briefly implemented, and then abandoned, by Cameron's government. The coalition's austerity plans have been a minor disaster, driving the economy back into recession over this year and hampering recovery. Extra expenditure, particularly on crucial infrastructure, is desperately needed. One estimate suggests that £500bn will be required over the next decade to replace creaking infrastructure....

The River Ouse flooding in Sussex in 2003, shot by Robin Webster, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK,  under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Flood warnings issued in northern England and Wales

Martin Wainwright in the Guardian (UK): Northern England and Wales is expected to get a soaking on Monday as the latest round of torrential rainfall moves up across the country. Downpours of up to 40-50mm could fall in the next 24 hours as the rain reaches Lancashire and Cumbria initially and then crosses the Pennines, gaining in intensity.

Severe weather warnings have been issued for Yorkshire and north-east England at the lowest 'be aware' level, with a pocket of the more serious 'be alert' status in north and east Yorkshire during the afternoon.

The Environment Agency has 16 flood warnings and 39 flood alerts in north-east England and Yorkshire and one warning and 14 alerts in the north west, with 21 areas in the north-east and three in the north-west back to normal after previous warnings....