This is a guest post by Katabasis.
Time Out published an online article yesterday entitled 'Err, Thames Barrier not really working as barrier'.
Some mild flooding took place at various places along the Thames on Monday, as it so often does. The article depicts numerous pictures from somewhere on the Thames that it describes as looking "pretty scary". A picture of rising water 'at the gates' is sure to have a psychological impact on many of us, myself included:
Another picture paints an apparently grim scenario for an intrepid cyclist:
In the second paragraph the author states, "OK we’re not talking apocalyptic, and we don’t want to scaremonger". Oh but you DO want to scaremonger, don't you? Planet of the Apes is mentioned for some reason followed in the third paragraph by the obligatory (get your sick bags ready) reference to how "this risk will increase as the effects of global warming become more pronounced".
Worse, to truly compound the horror, we are told that this is taking place near the Tate Modern. Oh the horror!
Now if you didn't follow the hyperlink given in the article when the Tate Modern is mentioned, you might go away with the distinct impression that the pictures in the article depict what is happening there.
The only problem is that the pictures included are several miles away from the Tate Modern.
I recognised the location as it is in fact my stomping ground - Greenwich. The pictures originate from the walkway next to the Royal Naval College. It floods with such regularity that it barely warrants comment, so why is Time Out trying to whip up spurious unprecedented, or a "one in 1,000 chance" flooding event (yes, they wrote that) on the basis of completing misleading pictures accompanying an equally misleading narrative?
Is it because what actually happened at the Tate Modern on Monday was, well how do we put it, a damp squib?
If you're easily disturbed, look away now:;)
