Catastrophic rainfall led to the tragic flooding in the Valencia region of Spain this week. More than 205 people were killed, and dozens are still missing. The region received a year’s worth of rain in only a few hours. (About 840,000 people live in the city of Valencia; the province has 2.6 million.)

Imagine 375 liters (100 gallons) of water pouring down on every square meter of land. Land that was very dry since Spain had been in a two-year drought.

The people in the region are paying a heavy price for our collective carbon pollution.

Need-to-Know: We’re all paying a carbon price

All of us are paying for our carbon pollution either through direct impacts of extreme weather:

Heat waves that force us to hide indoors or buy A/C units
Floods, winds, storms, and wildfires damage homes, cars, and other property, as well as our communities.
Etcetera

We’re also having to pay higher property insurance rates and higher property taxes.

I don’t think many of us realize that spending $millions or $billions in repairing storm-damaged public infrastructure means higher taxes. Otherwise, nothing gets fixed.

And sadly some people pay for our carbon pollution with their lives.

Need-to-Know: Carbon pollution makes rainfall increasingly torrential.

Carbon pollution did not make it rain in Valencia. It just made it worse, turning heavy rainfall into a record-breaking deluge. Only a few days before the tragedy in Valencia, I explained how carbon pollution has messed up our planet’s water cycle. SeeExtreme Rain = Extreme Flooding.

I don’t know what else to say.

What happened in Valencia has happened in many other places this year. It could happen anywhere. There is no safe place from the impacts of our ever-increasing carbon pollution.

Until next time. Be well.

Stephen

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