To think that even this horrendous tragedy won't change America's stance on climate change?

[AnnaQuayInTheUk]

I'm just reading about the dreadful flash flood in Texas and all those poor little girls who have drowned. So sad.

But, just as endless school shootings make no difference to America's attitude towards guns, I don't think this will change many people's minds - and especially Trump's - on climate change. Deniers will continue to argue that flash floods have always happened, as have wildfires, without any recognition that the frequency and intensity of these weather events are affected by human driven climate change.

So
YABU. - this will be a wake up call for the US government
YANBU - the US will still refuse to work towards carbon reduction/net zero

At least 24 people confirmed dead and more than 20 missing from girls camp in Texas flooding | US News | Sky News https://share.google/MiV0cwxvowYSemfMi

Poor children.

But no I don't think anything will change, school massacres don't change gun laws so why would this convince people that climate change is even a thing?

Exactly. I don't think anything will convince them.

What makes you think there's anything to convince? The weather has always been chaotic. That's what planet earth is.

It won't make a jot of difference unfortunately as with the school shootings, Kevlar backpacks shouldn't be required to go to school.

This is such sad news, but you're not wrong at all. I saw this today - blew my mind...

Try the IPCC's sixth assessment report. The summary for policymakers is pretty clear.

Sadly I don't think it will make a difference. People just don't see any link between the cause and effect. I think it's the same in the UK. High temperatures and drought don't seem to be changing the way people behave. Roads seem busier than ever and not much sign of people reducing their carbon footprint

Too much old money propping up the US political system. Will need generations of climate progressives to make meaningful change.

Try the natural history of the planet. You know, like successive ice ages and big thaws every few thousand years, long before humans existed. I wonder who was causing climate change then?

5 seconds of research shows me that this region is extremely prone to flooding and has been for many years. Here’s a publication from 1999 telling people what to do in the event of a flood and stating “The Guadalupe River experienced major floods in 1936, 1952, 1972, 1973, 1978, 1987, 1991 and 1997”.

www.gbra.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/StayingSafe.pdf

rather high handed of you to make a thread declaring it’s all because of climate change when those “deniers” are right - floodplains flood. That’s why they’re called floodplains

I was trying to be brief.

Apparently Texas holds 6 of the 12 highest rainfall amounts ever recorded in a 24-period in the entire world. It's extremely prone to flash flooding (I didn't know this either) and tops the US charts for flood damage nearly every year.

They are not likely to put this down to climate change.

The evidence for climate change is overwhelmingly clear.
I don't think OP intended to debate the existence of climate change.

As I said in my OP, there have always been extreme weather events but the frequency and intensity of these is increasing and that is due to climate change.

We are ruining the planet and America seems even worse than us in their attitude to climate change. However, I don't think you can conclude that one flash flood is necessarily anything to do with climate change so it's unlikely to change things.

Wow it is like a scene from The Handmaids Tale.

The US govt (at any level) doesn't seem to care about its children. School shooting after school shooting, yet the rights & demands of the NRA come first.

This is the same. What's a few drowned school girls against PROFIT. Apparently, it happened before in the same area. 10 teenagers drowned that time, yet they carried on running summer camps there. No flood warning system in place.

Im in Scotland -more torrential rain showers - not the weather we used to get in June.

But I wouldn’t blame just the USA - why don’t we all just stop using plastic packaging -it’s littering the world and the sea? But it just goes on.

The universe keeps sending messages but humans are not listening.

Yes there have been previous floods but Texan meteorologists have said that this flood was far worse than most of the previous ones. The river rose faster than it ever had before according to officials.

@Meadowfinch that's it in a nutshell.
The blase attitude to loss of life is disgusting from those on high.
Gotta keep the 💵 rolling in.

@AuntyHistamine it’s the speed of change that’s different. We are getting ‘once in a lifetime’ events every year. Record breaking temperatures are happening every other year rather than every 20/30 years.

But I don’t think any of us can change your mind.

On a positive note, we have had some good research progress- natural substances to remove microplastics from water, various other useful ways to reverse damage.

But the climate situation is still dire.

The argument suggested by @AuntyHistamine isn't really an argument. Yes, the planetary climate's always changing. Yes, it's been through hothouse and snowball ages that would not be supportive of human life. Yes, it's still coming out of its last cold snap. The Last Glacial Maximum was only 11,200 years ago, not very long by Mother Earth's standards, and she's probably still warming up.

Given the planet's continued warming and the fact that we belong to a species with a very small tolerance window, it makes absolutely no sense to speed up this warming. If anything we should be using our big brains to slow it down.

It doesn't matter what's causing how much of the warming, we influence the ecosystem and we're currently making it hotter than it would be without us. Madness.