Climate change-induced headbanging party in the belfry

From Climate Scepticism

BY JIT

A few weeks ago, the Wokeist faction at the National Trust defeated the Anti-Wokeists in the Battle of Swindon (i.e. their AGM). One imagines the fatal blow was struck, not with a Welsh halberd, but a Devon scone. The victory was just in time for the NT to serve up their latest failed climate soufflé, which was however eagerly bolted down by several media Labradors.

In fairness, the Anti-Wokeists made their stand on matters more colonialist than climate, but one likes to think that they had their heads rather more screwed on in that department than the present shower. They also had the dice stacked against them, or so the rumour has it:

The group, which describes itself as opposing a “woke” agenda, also put forward two motions to the AGM. Its resolution to remove the “quick vote” system, where members’ ballot papers have recommendations from the National Trust’s Nominations Committee highlighted on them, was defeated with 60,327 in favour and 69,715 against.YP, ibid.

They were perilously close to winning that one.

MALHAM TARN: NATIONAL TRUST CLIMATE SCIENTISTS TO MOVE INTO 18TH-CENTURY YORKSHIRE MANSION GIFTED TO CHARITY AS THEY DECIDE ON DALES ESTATE’S FUTURE

Why does the National Trust have climate scientists?

No, it’s not the setup for a cracker joke. The answer is because they have too much money.

Anyway, the climate report (mentioned by Mark here) wants us to believe that climate change is damaging the Trust’s historic buildings. I have my doubts about that.

Now, let us suppose you had been told – just now, by me – that the National Trust had a climate report out. What perils would you predict that their buildings, mostly built on the wealth produced by slave labour, etc, would be facing?

You would probably suggest flood, storm, and rising sea levels. I know I did. You might also throw in heatwaves, without a sensible idea about how heatwaves were going to damage old buildings. You might be developing a cynical idea that what we are actually dealing with here are weather events that would have happened anyway, but have been relabelled as climate events because everything is climate now and climate is everything. You might be right.

You can obtain said report here, should you be so inclined.

It starts off badly, in the Foreword:

As I write we are once again experiencing flooding in many parts of the country, and more storms are on the way. There is a lot to learn about the best approaches to climate risks, but we can’t wait for more academic research, we can see the impacts of climate change all around us (even at our favourite National Trust properties!) and we must learn on the job.

If you guessed that weather events were going to be conflated with climate change, you may recharge your glass. And have another two fingers if you have “storm” and “flood” on your bingo card.

After having got off on the wrong foot, the report then opens up by misreporting the IPCC, quoting the latest WG2 report as saying,

Many species could be ‘pushed past their physiological tolerance’ and there would be ‘irreversible phase shifts’ in marine ecosystems.

However, while there are several mentions of “irreversible phase shifts” in marine ecosystems (in my view erroneously), the first quoted excerpt is not to be found anywhere in the 3,000 page document, unless my browser got tired of searching it. The only mention of “physiological tolerance” is in connection with montane possums. Note to the author of the NT report: only put direct quotes in, er, quote marks.

But I digress. How is climate change actually damaging the buildings?

Well, a newsworthy snippet picked up by our local media in Norfolk had to do with Blickling Hall. Blickling is a nice estate to walk around, with some veteran trees including small-leaved limes, a bizarre pyramidal mausoleum and a couple of cafés, including one attached to the hall itself, in what was once presumably gardeners’ quarters or something.

BLICKLING HALL IN NORFOLK COULD CRUMBLE NATIONAL TRUST SAYS

[See featured image.] From the article, this nonsensical statement:

Patrick Begg, outdoors and natural resources director at the National Trust, said: “Climate change presents the single biggest threat to the places in our care and the single biggest challenge to our mission – to look after places of nature, beauty and history for everyone to enjoy, now and in the future.”

No it doesn’t, you idiot. That would be entropy. But what are the alleged threats to Blickling Hall from climate change?

Today, new extremes in both rainfall and drought are threatening the structure of the building.

Actually the threats number 3. So far. They are the Silvergate Stream, which is apparently bringing more water than before, which cannot be handled [asterisk: it sometimes runs dry and the clay shrinks]; the increased rain, which the gutters cannot handle; and death-watch beetles, caused by damp, which is itself perhaps caused by the inadequate guttering, although as much is not spelled out in the report.

First, the stream. I don’t know whether stream flow peaks have gone up. I don’t know if stream flow peaks are measured. The cynic in me says they are not. The stream itself is an interesting matter.

The mansion is built on a seam of clay that follows the line of the Silvergate Stream up to the lake.(from the report, and cut’n’pasted into the EDP story.)

That sounds like a dubious plan. Why would anyone build a mansion there rather than safely out of the stream’s path? Well, the answer is quite obvious if you think about it for a few moments.

I’ll wait.

Yes, the original reason for the location’s choice was to make it easy to build a moat. In these decadent days of mostly peaceful protests, it is easy to forget the uncivilised manners of our uncouth forebears. [Asterisk: from what I have read, the moat was mostly dry by the time the present house was built in the early seventeenth century. It was by then a pretend defensive structure, when in the original Medieval circumstance, it was a genuinely defensive structure.] Peruse a map, or an aerial photograph of Blickling, and you will see a narrow stream heading northwards and then, just as it reaches the house’s curtilage, disappear out of view under the road. It reappears to the north of the house just before the (artificial) lake.

From the report:

At one time the Silvergate Stream – a tributary of the River Bure – ran through the walled garden, feeding the nearby lake to provide fresh water to the house and help with waste management. Over time this developed into a more complex water system, with a series of culverts, drains, sewers and chambers installed by the Victorians.

And when it floods, they blame it on

The Hall’s connection to the water continues today, but the effect that climate change is having on the river, as well as local rainfall, is making the estate more difficult to manage.

You can apparently listen to live audio from the Silvergate Stream here.

In this case, the attempt to blame climate change is entirely spurious. The stream wants to go where it wants to go, and after heavy rain, it is hard to dissuade. Keeping it trapped in a mid-Victorian drain system is going to be difficult. Every so often, the stream is going to burst forth and find a faster way to the lake.

Next, we have the gutters. I do not know whether rain has become harder, but even if it has, the gutters are only going to be overmatched on very rare occasions. It is far too easy to blame an increase in rain, without demonstrating that one has occurred.

Finally, the death-watch beetle infestation. What has this to do with climate change? Well, the beetle eats oak timbers, but only after they have been partly digested by dry rot. The dodgy gutters seemingly allowed water ingress, and consequently damp, with fungus and the beetle following on.

And as everyone knows, nowhere in the UK suffered infestations of death-watch beetle until the climate catastrophe began. That’s why Thomas Browne, who just so happened to be based in Norfolk, did not mention it at all in his 17^th century writings, as he hadn’t heard of it. Oh, wait:

Few ears have escaped the noise of the dead-watch, that is, the little clickling [sic] sound heard often in many rooms, somewhat resembling that of a watch; and this is conceived to be of an evil omen or prediction of some persons death…

via Wiki

The clickling sound is due to the males and females of the species signalling to one another by banging their heads against the wood. Not unlike the males and females of our species today.

This note is already long enough, so I will surrender the stage now. But I would like to make an observation about artificial structures. As soon as they are finished, they begin to fall to pieces. Left to itself, a house’s roof is unlikely to keep the rain out for more than a couple of decades. After the rain gets in, the dry rot gets in, and everything turns to powder in another decade. After the roof has come down, the walls might stand for another few decades, ultimately to be smashed apart by the hydraulic forces of tree roots.

There is no point blaming all this on human emissions of carbon dioxide. There just isn’t. If your building is proof against today’s weather, it will be proof against tomorrow’s.

Finally, the National Trust do good stuff. They look after the nation’s heritage. They keep old buildings from collapsing. We should praise and salute them for that. But it is sad to see that they, like so many charities, are fully signed up to the climate cult.

Will Blickling Hall crumble? Certainly, eventually. But let us hope the day that happens is far in the future.