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    Environment Agency chief exec viewing UK climate disasters as an 'opportunity' for economic growth Archived Message

    Posted by Ian M on June 27, 2019, 6:22 pm

    Headline in the Mirror focuses on James Bevan's admission that 'a lot of people will die' and statement that there will be lots of internal refugees that will need to be resettled from places overcome by flooding or swallowed by the sea: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/environment-boss-warns-a-lot-16538982

    All well and good, but following through to the full speech I was more shocked by his desperate, and I would argue borderline psychotic, attempts to present the climate emergency as an 'opportunity'. It's even in the disturbing title: 'Not drowning but waving: making the climate emergency a global opportunity', which he elaborates on thusly:

    '[W]herever the funding comes from it will be excellent value for money, because on average every £1 spent protecting locations from flood avoids around £9 in damages. In the 2013 East Coast storm surge, not only did our flood defences ensure there was no cost in lives, they also prevented £37bn in economic damage.

    There’s more. Much of the investment we’ll need to put in over the next few decades won’t just save money in terms of damages avoided. It will generate greater wealth and prosperity too. Building back better after flooding, designing new technology, creating infrastructure that’s more resilient: these are all huge economic opportunities which will deliver high returns for investors, more growth and jobs, more innovation and new technology.

    [...]

    [T]he UK will be rightly recognised as a world leader in managing flooding and coastal change. There is money as well as fame and security in all this. By 2030 the cost of global adaptation to climate change will be up to $300 billion a year. That’s a huge new market. We in the UK have world-leading expertise across the whole flood and coastal supply chain: much of it sitting in front of me now. So this is not just a problem: it’s an economic opportunity we should all seize.'     - https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/not-drowning-but-waving-making-the-climate-emergency-a-global-opportunity

    Just goes to show how utterly captured all sections of government are by extremist capitalist ideology, even those tasked with preserving the environment ffs! Surely it's got to be crystal clear at this point that further economic growth, however you play around with definitions, is incompatible with a living planet and continued human existence. I don't think people in government will ever understand that... It reminds me of the old argument in favour of traffic accidents - because ambulances, hospitals, drug companies, doctors & nurses all represent added economic value which wouldn't exist in a world with 100% road safety. Why not smash the planet up even more if it means we can pay ourselves to do even more botched, sticking-plaster repair jobs? It's all so f*ing ridiculous and insane!

    I

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