Should the British Build an Ark?

While coping with the wave of car bombings, the most unflappable people on earth were being warned of even greater disaster this weekend.

The Rt Rev Graham Dow, Bishop of Carlisle, is telling them that recent floods around the country “are not just a result of a lack of respect for the planet, but also a judgment on society's moral decadence...We are reaping the consequences of our moral degradation, as well as the environmental damage that we have caused."

The Bishop, a leading evangelical, made it clear that the floods, which have left thousands homeless, were brought on by recent legislation approving gay marriage.

The Rt Rev Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, joined in the warning: "Instead of living as if we owned the earth we need to recover a sense of being participants in a web of life with responsibilities to other life forms and to our children."

The weekend forecast calls for more torrential rainstorms. There was no word on how “other life forms” would be chosen if an ark were built.