Monday, July 02, 2007

Score one for logic

It seems like just a short time ago, we were poking some fun at our friends across the pond for their decision to work on removing "prostitute" from the lawbooks. Now, we're actually praising them for what could be an effort to remove "flood destroyed home" from the language as well. And all it took was a little forward thinking, and application of actual thought processes.

Having just survived the wettest June on record for the United Kingdom, the Environment Agency of Britain has been given some new authority when it comes to new home construction. And they plan on using that authority, to try and keep people from getting flooded out. By telling them not to build in flood plains.

Honestly, we're relatively surprised that it took any nation this long to start thinking, "Well, this area tends to flood. Perhaps we shouldn't put houses here." However, we're not surprised that it was the UK, and not the US, that finally put two and two together, and got a result that wasn't twenty-two. After all, not only do we continue building in flood plains, even going so far as to try and divert rivers out of their natural beds because we want to use the fertile soil for our tomato plants, but we also have a tendency to build along fault line. We also have an entire area of the country nicknamed "Tornado Alley", which hasn't yet prevented people from building homes there, and then wondering why they got hit by a destructive force.

Sometimes we firmly believe that, if there were more active volcanoes around, people would build their homes along the sides, and then hope for magma insurance. We'll just keep our fingers crossed that this new development out of Britain may lead to wiser development everywhere.

It's almost enough to make us forgive the "prostitute" thing.

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