British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited the flooded areas of Gloucestershire this week, where he contradicted meteorologists who said the floods were “down to bad luck, not global warming.”

Brown said the heavy rains and floods in Britain over the past month are related to climate change. “Like every advanced industrialized country, we are coming to terms with the issues surrounding climate change,” he said.

“We’re looking, if you like, at 21st Century extreme weather conditions,” he said.

Do you ever see a photo or hear a story about a situation you know you should be preparing for but you haven’t? When we complained a couple of days ago about 30 days of temperatures over 100 degrees, my brother-in-law countered with floods in his town in southwest England. He’s pretty low key. “But, we’re all right.”

So, we check the BBC for more news of floods, and it’s so much worse than he let on. Throughout the southwest, the midlands, Yorkshire — anywhere there is a river to flood, it seems, England is awash.

Stiff-upper-lipped meteorologists aren’t saying this is due to global warming. The jetstream shifted south this year, carrying far more rain that the rivers can handle. Rather than going to the furthest north of Scandinavia as usual, it’s blowing right through Britain and on to northern Europe.

In most of the stories I’ve read, people are waiting for provisions to be brought to them. The water has been turned off in some places, so bowsers, giant drinking water tanks, have been planted throughout towns. Most people are being oh-so polite and not hoarding food, but could you please pump out the local Co-op Foodstore so I can buy a pint of milk?

The BBC has included reader photos from all over the flooded regions. All of the photos taken together are shocking. People don’t seem to be too worried that such flooding could be the wave (so to speak) of their future. My parents-in-law are only a few feet above sea level. The rise of the sea and other flooding in Britain is generally on my mind. Are they preparing? Theoretically, yes. I want to hear about the practical details.

UPDATE: It’s much worse in the past couple of days.  My in-laws are leaving town because they have no water.  They can get water from the giant bowsers.  It will probably be about 2 weeks before they return to their jobs full-time.  They have it much better than people in many towns in the southwest of England, though.

New addition.

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First of all, we will never have clean air. This was the shocking statement made by a good friend of mine who monitors air for a living. “CleanER air is the best you can hope for.” OK. I guess the Utah Moms for Clean Air misnamed the group (in more ways than one, I have to say).

When I hear that no child who grows up in Utah will reach full lung capacity, I pay attention. When a mother stood up at a Utah MOMS for Clean Air meeting and said, “My baby breathed the equivalent of 11 packs of cigarettes last winter during 22 red-burn days,” I paid attention.

What to do? Obviously, raise hell and attempt to change the legislation that creates the regulations that allow belching coal plants and belching trucks. Also, change personal habits (what we drive, whether we fly, and a million other smalls steps) and encourage those around us to do that same without crossing the line to become evangelists. Can’t do that evangelism thing. Groups of mothers and physicians are doing a great job of raising hell and raising awareness, though. That’s good.

But, my friend went on, “We aren’t just monitoring Utah pollution. We are monitoring global pollution.” CO, NOX, NO2, Ozone, PM10, Lead, SO2. We know a little about those global pollutants as they cross paths with very few monitoring stations in Utah. What about mercury, chlorine, dioxin, VOC, PM2.5, PM1. WHAT ABOUT MERCURY? Is anyone willing to stand up and call for monitoring mercury in the air, in the water, in the fish, in the foul, in our children, in our breastmilk?

I can do the basic Think Global / Act Local thing.

What if these steps don’t result in CleanER Air?

What steps should I take to deal with dirty air, to prevent my babies from smoking 11 packs of Salt Lake inversion cigarettes every winter? Should I be more worried that my children wear baby gas masks when they go out bike riding than giant foam crash helmets?

The Utah MOMS list of what to do focuses on making change for the future. That’s noble. In the meantime, what can I do to deal with asthma, childhood cancers, SIDS, low birth weight, reduced lung function, and just plain collapsing dead on the street on a red-burn day?

I don’t have an answer to that one.

No, I’m not trying to be shocking. I just caught a little news story last week noting that a monkey in a Denver zoo died of bubonic plague.

Bubonic plague. Would that be the black death? Hmm. Not sure. Jury is out on that one. Jury is in, though, on “bleeding into the skin and other organs, which creates black patches on the skin.”

What is the appropriate response here?

1. Holy shit! or
2. figures.

It turns out not to be as rare as I had imagined (or hoped).

How to prepare? I don’t know. Don’t eat southwestern squirrels, don’t pet mice, don’t get fleas, and don’t play in infectious disease labs. That’s what I come up with so far.