Spain has just been given a deadly lesson in the consequences of climate change denial
Spain’s Valencia region has made headlines around the world this week for all the wrong reasons, prompting questions as to how a highly developed country could fail to manage the terrible flooding that has claimed the lives of more than 200 people.
Let’s be clear, leaving aside the question of whether the authorities could have acted more quickly and decisively, it’s fundamental to understand that what happened was not some freak event.
The reality is that these catastrophic weather phenomena that create flash floods, where a year’s rain can fall in 24 hours, are part of a new normality.
Let’s start at the beginning: the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere on November 2 in the affected areas was 423.22 parts per million (ppm). Seen like that, the number seems abstract, but it is 3.94 ppm more, 0.94%, than a year ago, and it is still rising. It’s a number you’ve probably never noticed in your life. But that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere comes primarily from one thing: the use of fossil fuels.
Whatever else the authorities might tell us, that’s the cause, and it’s entirely a product of human activity. It is not a geological drift, it’s not inevitable, and has nothing to do with solar flares. Our continued…
