Flooding in America

Climate One

News, News Commentary, Science, Earth Sciences, Social Sciences

4.7 • 583 Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2020

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Summary

Miami may be the poster child of rising waters in the U.S., but further inland, states are grappling with torrential flooding that is becoming the new norm. The Great Flood of 2019 caused destroyed acres of farmland and caused billions in damage throughout the Midwest. And scientists predict that there’s more climate-related precipitation to come. What does that mean for America’s aging infrastructure? “It’s absolutely going to fail for future climate events,” warns Martha Shulski of the Nebraska State Climate Office. “If you're not planning for the climate of 2040 or 2060 then there's going to be failure. There's going to be impacts in a very extreme way perhaps.” What happens when there is too much water — or not enough? “The problem with water is we treat it as if it’s, you know, inexhaustible,” says Betsy Otto, Global Water Director at the World Resources Institute. How are companies and communities planning for a future of water saturation and scarcity? Visit climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts for more information on today's episode. Guests: Julia Kumari Drapkin, CEO and Founder, ISeeChange Ed Kearns, Chief Data Officer, First Street Foundation Martha Shulski, Director, Nebraska State Climate Office; Nebraska State Climatologist Betsy Otto, Global Water Director, World Resources Institute Additional interview: Jack Mulliken, farmer in Northeast Nebraska This program was recorded on July 28 and August 4, 2020, and is generously underwritten by the Water Foundation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:31.1	Is America ready for the next great flood?
0:34.7	Climate One Conversations feature energy companies and environmentalists, Republicans and Democrats,
0:40.0	the exciting and the scary aspects of the climate challenge. I'm Greg Dalton.
0:47.9	Rising seas and hurricanes along the coast tend to make the splashest headlines. But last year,
0:53.2	the Midwest and southeastern states
0:54.9	grappled with torrential rains and flooding that ruined crops and caused billions in damages.
0:59.7	And according to climatologists, there's more where that came from.
1:03.4	We can only expect it to get wetter, more extreme precipitation events. If you're not planning
1:09.1	for the climate of 2040 or 2060, then there's going to be
1:14.3	failure. Tracking floods, hurricanes, and other volatile weather events in order to prevent future
1:19.4	destruction may seem like the province of data scientists and weather nerds. But those with a stake in
1:24.8	planning next season's harvest have been doing this work for generations.
1:28.3	When you ask a ranch or a farmer how they make year-to-year decisions, they will go and bring out a notebook with all the detailed notes about weather and climate on their farmer ranch.
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