Burning Man rained out: Part of a global 'pattern of intense & severe flooding in a warmer world'
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Transcript
00:00 What does this all mean? That's bringing in Richard P. Allen, Professor of Climate Science
00:04 at Reading University. Richard, thank you very much for being with us. Unprecedented rain then
00:08 in Nevada. Clearly, are we looking at climate change? Is this why we should be concerned
00:14 that Burning Man has been so badly affected? Well, I mean, it's not unprecedented to get
00:20 this, these type of events happening in the desert. But of course, when they do occur,
00:24 they can lead to flooding because the ground is dry and encrusted, the water cannot drain into
00:32 the soil and it flows off as runoff and it creates these terrible muddy conditions. So part of this
00:37 was bad luck that this unusual event coincided with a time when there were tens of thousands of
00:43 people at this festival. But when you consider it as part of the pattern of the intense and severe
00:51 flooding going across the world, you've seen the recent reports from Spain, of course, Turkey,
00:57 also India, Pakistan. Part of this pattern is consistent with more intense rain in a warmer
01:05 world. So should we be more concerned about what's happened in Spain, the flooding we've seen there?
01:11 Well, I think so, in the sense that it's highly unusual for you to get, you know,
01:18 tens of thousands of people in the desert and it happened to coincide with a storm, which is
01:23 unusual and created difficulties. But yeah, we've seen some terrible conditions in Spain, Turkey,
01:29 but many other locations across the world this year and last. And what we do know,
01:34 based on fairly simple physics, is that as we pump more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere,
01:41 that traps more heat, warms the atmosphere, the atmosphere can hold more moisture.
01:46 So when it does rain heavily, the intensity of that rain is even stronger. So when you do get
01:51 flooding associated with this heavy rain, it's even more severe and creates these situations
01:57 we're seeing ever more commonly across the world, damaging infrastructure and people's livelihoods.
02:03 Indeed, while we're seeing all this destruction, this lunchtime here in Paris, I was sat
02:09 on a terrace, lucky me, I realise I'm privileged in many respects, with friends, having lunch in the
02:15 sun. It was incredibly warm. They were complaining that autumn wasn't starting. Again, is this
02:20 something we should be concerned about? Well, it's not to be concerned about to get weather,
02:25 we always have the weather. But when we do get extreme weather, climate change is making these
02:32 extremes even more severe. So when we get a heatwave, it will be even hotter. We've already
02:37 seen terrible wildfire conditions when you get intense heat, but also extra drying of the ground
02:44 because of this more thirsty atmosphere. And when we get intense rainfall, we get even more
02:50 heavier downpours and even more severe flooding. So it's part of a pattern. Until we rapidly and
02:57 massively cut our greenhouse gas emissions, these extreme weather events are only going to get worse.
03:04 But the good news is we can stop them getting worse by cutting greenhouse gas emissions from
03:10 particularly burning fossil fuels. Okay, it's up to us to make that change. And the government
03:16 and industry, but everybody basically, Richard, we're getting the message. Thank you so very much
03:19 indeed, as if that message wasn't already clear enough, because we've spoken before, haven't we?
03:23 Thank you so very much indeed, Richard P. Allen from Reading University, Professor of Climate
03:28 Science there. Thank you for giving us your sense and your take on what is going on. And I think the
03:32 message is very clear. We need to change how we live, how we do things. And it's not happening
03:37 quickly is it?