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Wanna Argument?
Freak Weather - apocalypse now or storm in a teacup?
Changing Land Use - Can We Blame Agriculture?
The head of the global change unit at Oxford University has challenged the prevailing wisdom that the recent floods are caused by global warming. He points to the increase in sheep grazing on the country's uplands and the change by farmers to growing autumn-, rather than spring-sown wheat as the main reason behind the inundation of many towns and villages.
Overstocking the uplands with sheep leads to erosion and greater run-off rainwater. The growing of a winter crop of wheat means that farmland is bare during the wettest part of the year, again causing rainwater to run-off into the water system rather than being held on the land in plough furrows, as used to happen.
This negative externality which has resulted from changing agricultural land use, has not been discussed to any great extent during the national 'weather debate'.
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