Headline of the Day (climate change edition)

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Here it is:

Climate flooding risk 'misjudged'

Wait... the deniers are right?! Damn all!

Did we get it wrong? The flooding won't be as bad as we thought it would be? It's all tree-hugging propaganda and hype?

Well, no. It'll be worse:

Climate change may carry a higher risk of flooding than was previously thought, the journal Nature reports. [italics added]

Researchers say efforts to calculate flooding risk from climate change do not take into account the effect carbon dioxide (CO2) has on vegetation.

Higher atmospheric levels of this greenhouse gas reduce the ability of plants to suck water out of the ground and "breathe" out the excess.

Plants expel excess water through tiny pores, or stomata, in their leaves.

Their reduced ability to release water back into the atmosphere will result in the ground becoming saturated.

Great.

The deniers still deny, still think they're right, still think it's all tree-hugging nonsense, still get it wrong, while projections of our common future just get worse and worse and worse, and nothing much gets done to deal with the most pressing crisis of our time, perhaps of all time.