It's not what you know, it's how you use it

Number Watch has a good swipe at the flood coverage.

If you build your house on a flood plain, it follows as the night the day that it will eventually be flooded. That is how the flood plains were created in the first place. That is what they are for. Concreting over vast areas of the naturally absorbing soil guarantees that this will happen more often. Time was when communities carried on traditions that had been developed over hundreds of generations, such as hedging and ditching at the appropriate time of year. Water meadows were flooded for a purpose and houses were never built on them. Now people think they know better.

That last sentence echoes my own beliefs - that modern "progressives" believe they know better than our forefathers. That is why they have spent the last few decades dismantling generations of accumulated knowledge with their post-modern revisionist perspective on everything - from education to morality - particularly on the environment. Modern environmentalism is based on reactionary sentimentalism and has nothing on the old ways.

Once upon a time - not that long ago, either - we cared for the environment because it was tied to our existence and we did so with cold eyed efficiency, not faint-hearted sentimentality. They knew better how to manage the land, the resources, the flora and fauna. Despite our so-called knowledge society, despite all our technological advances, they had a better understanding of the environment, the seasons and the weather than we do now - because their lives and livelihoods were linked to them.

That is real knowledge.

In comparison, we know nothing.