<
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/04/spain-deaths-europe-realities-extreme-weather-flooding>
"At the time of writing, the death toll has risen to 214. Battered cars and
other debris are piled up in the streets, large swaths of Valencia remain
underwater, and Spain is in mourning. On Sunday, anger erupted as the king and
queen of Spain were pelted with mud and other objects by protesters. Why were
so many lives lost in a flood that was well forecasted in a wealthy country?
From the global north’s vantage point, the climate crisis, caused by the
burning of coal, oil and gas, has long been seen as a distant threat,
affecting poor people in the global south. This misconception has perpetuated
a false sense of security.
Scientists have long known that heating the climate with fossil fuel emissions
will result in the intensification of floods, storms, heatwaves, drought and
wildfires. However, it was not until 2004 that the first attribution study
formally linked a weather event – the devastating 2003 European heatwave – to
our changing climate. Despite the evidence, people have been hesitant to
connect extreme weather with the climate crisis.
I founded World Weather Attribution in 2014 to shift the conversation. Our
attribution studies are carried out quickly, over days or weeks, in the
immediate aftermath of weather disasters to inform people in real time about
the role of the climate crisis.
A quick analysis following the floods in Spain found that the climate emergency
made the extreme rainfall about 12% more intense and twice as likely. Despite
this, in Paiporta, where at least 62 people have died, the mayor said floods
were not common and “people are not afraid”. But the changing climate is making
once-rare events more common.
Record-breaking events such as these complicate preparedness – how do you
communicate the extreme danger of something someone has never experienced
before?"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
