Alvin Ea, chief executive of Singapore's largest container haulage platform, Haulio, believes that the industry has become a lot more resilient, by looking at options other than China.

"Maybe three months down the road, we will see the choke come back to Asia again," Mr Ea says.

The Ea value would have to be an unlikely 97 kJ mol−1 to make the Arrhenius function fit with the efflux observed from the warmed plots.

Villagers in Fishlake near Doncaster were forced to flee their homes after the river Don and Ea Beck both burst their banks.

Worthington noted that Ea may have lied in the Gilgamesh Flood story for one simple reason: it benefited him.