The Irish Times view on the floods in Spain: climate change in action

A 1940s aphorism on war could well be adapted to the impacts of global heating today: “You may not be interested in climate change, but climate change is interested in you”.
This week’s exceptionally severe floods in Spain demonstrate, once again, that we are now dealing with a real, present and increasing danger, and not a speculative future scenario. These floods have afflicted vast areas, primarily in Valencia, but also as far away as Andalusia, Aragon and Catalonia. The death toll is still rising.
The dramatic images of cars massed on top of each other by the surging waters offer a graphic instance of the power unleashed by climate chaos over a key emblem of our contemporary culture.
Flash floods have become so frequent in Iberia that they have their own Spanish acronym, Dana, meaning high-altitude isolated depressions. These are destructive weather systems in which cold and warm air meet independently of polar or subtropical jet streams, and produce super-powerful rain clouds.
Ironically, their intensity is exacerbated by the hard soil surfaces created by crippling droughts, which prevent moving water being absorbed, and transform it into mini tsunamis. Add in the rising frequency of deadly wildfires in Spain, also climate-change-driven, and the near future, as for much of the Mediterranean region, looks grim.
We have known for decades that climate poverty is driving mass migration from the Middle East and Africa into countries that are now facing climate collapses of their own, with consequences we are all now familiar with further north in Europe.
As climate change produces this perfect storm, in every sense, the wonder is that it is not at the top of our political agendas. Climate policy shows no sign of prominence in our coming election campaign, no more than it did in the recent election in Britain, nor in the current contest in the US. Climate change is interested in everyone, everywhere, and we must become much more interested in taking appropriate – and rapid – action.