Extreme weather events: A clear link to climate change?
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We turn our eye to the extreme weather conditions in Louisiana, where there are warnings of storm surges and flash floods for the New Orleans area. This comes in the wake of the now weakened Hurricane Ida. It slammed into the Louisiana coast on Sunday, knocking out power for more than a million people, including the whole of New Orleans. Ida comes 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina devastated the same area.
But it is not just wetter weather that the world is seeing. It is also drier weather: at this very moment there are around 90 wildfires blazing in the US. Earlier this month, Europe recorded its hottest-ever temperature. Wildfires tore through the Mediterranean region, while last month's severe rainfall and flooding killed scores of people in Germany and Belgium.
Is the planet trying to tell us something? Is there a clear link between extreme weather and climate change? And despite measures from governments, will things get worse before they get better – if indeed they do get better?
Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Juliette Laurain and Léopoldine Iribarren.
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