There is an irony to the fact that many Welsh communities are now threatened by the coal that has been dug up around them for centuries. This is the fuel that helped launch the Industrial Revolution and changed the world. At the same time, its combustion has played a key role in boosting amounts of carbon in the atmosphere to levels that have triggered global temperature rises to near 1.5C, propelling the UK – and the rest of the world – into a climate crisis.
Sea levels are rising, meaning our shores are being battered by higher, more destructive waves, while rainfall in Britain is intensifying, putting communities at real risk of devastation, as seen in Wales last week.
It is not surprising that local people feel aggrieved that the government and local authorities have not done enough to protect them.
We have known for decades that climate change is real, dangerous, and will continue to worsen as we persist in burning more and more fossil fuels and raising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere – while, at the same time, doing little to tackle the consequences.
Such neglect is not confined to Wales, of course. It is mirrored by the inaction of most developed nations, which have flourished through industrialisation, driven by the burning of fossil fuels. Indeed, it is a further irony of this story that just as Storm Bert was battering homes around Cwmtillery and Pontypridd, delegates at Cop29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, were concluding yet another climate summit that failed to tackle the roots of the crisis.
Once more, no mention was made of the urgent need to phase out fossil fuels, a decision that world leaders have been urged to make for decades. Wales will not be the last place to suffer the repercussions.
What is more worrying, at a local level, is the political response to this inaction. As an Observer report reveals, many in the region feel betrayed and are now threatening to switch their vote to the Reform party at forthcoming elections in order to punish their current leaders. Yet Reform denies that climate change has anything to do with the devastation that struck Wales. Britain has had bad weather forever, it claims.
This is not a view shared by scientists, who insist it has played a key role in the intensification of rainfall in the UK. To deny such links is worrying, says Bob Ward, head of policy at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change.
“You cannot work out how best to repair the damage that has been caused by rain from these storms, or find ways to prevent them from causing more damage in future, if you do not accept the reality of the causes of these events,” he says. “We will get nowhere unless we face up to the realities of the current climate crisis. It’s as simple as that.”
Damage from Britain’s storms is only going to worsen until net zero is reached across the planet sometime in the future. And rainfall will not decrease in intensity when that day arrives – it will simply linger at its new heightened level until humanity finds a way of extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
We may have a long wait for that eventuality, it should be noted. The science fiction author Isaac Asimov once remarked that “the easiest way to solve a problem is to deny it exists”.
The lessons from Wales highlight what would be the dangers in following such a path. The climate crisis and its long-term consequences cannot be avoided – or denied.
