Quote:
Originally Posted by TorontoDrew
Syracuse, N.Y. – For the second time in three years, water levels in Lake Ontario are so high above the long-term average they threaten to swamp shoreline homes.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in Sodus Point this week, said the high water is part of the “new reality” of a warmer, wetter world.
“We have to plan that these changes in climate will continue,” Cuomo said. “We have to accept that flooding and increased water flow are the new reality. Let’s start building for that new reality.”
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It looks to me like you may be a victim of the fear industry. Here are a few tips to help allay your fears. First of all anything from the CBC should be viewed with great suspicion. Today’s CBC is not your grandparents’ CBC. They are one of the worst for fake news these days, but all the major outlets seem to be essentially in the fear industry now. It’s no longer, “if it bleeds it leads”. It’s, “fear drives clicks, facts be damned.”
Second, weather tends to go in cycles that last longer than a year. You’ll get a number of years close together that are wetter than normal, or a number of years that are dryer, so the fact that there were two flood years close together is not unusual. There is some theory on this but I’ll let you look that up on your own. As an example, however, Calgary had a big flood in 2013, but it had two bigger floods in the late 1800s. So two big ones close together, but still almost 20 years apart, and then nothing very close that size for over 100 years, and then another big one in 2013. And this is not an unusual pattern.
Third, don’t place too much weight on recorded history, especially in these parts, because it’s not very long. Geological history tells a much longer story, and I’m sure the CBC knows that, which is why they tried to scare you with the “worst in recorded history!” bit an avoided geological history. Look at the picture you posted. The land at the edge of the water looks very flat and very much like a floodplain. And if it is, and it almost certainly is, that tells you that there has been water there about a metre higher than it is now, and probably a number of times. But by ignoring the geological history that’s right there in the photo, and talking about the “worst in recorded history!”, or whatever it was they said, they scared you, and now you’re running around the internet posting links to their article. Fear drives clicks.