Climate activist slams politicians as flash floods kill dozens in Spanish state

Jesus M Castillo, a professor in ecology at the University of Seville in the Spanish state, spoke to Socialist Worker

Jesus M Castillo, a professor in ecology at the University of Seville


By Camilla Royle
Wednesday 30 October 2024

SOCIALIST WORKER Issue 2929

Flash floods have killed at least 70 people in the Valencia region of the Spanish state—and politicians’ inaction on climate change is to blame.

A year’s worth of rain fell in the space of a day in some areas after extremely heavy rainfall started on Tuesday. Residents of Valencia described scenes that looked like a “zombie apocalypse” with bridges and roads completely destroyed and people trapped in their cars.

Jesus M Castillo is a professor in ecology at the University of Seville in the Spanish state. He told Socialist Worker that the flooding was predictable, but the authorities acted too slowly. “I research climate change so I know the Mediterranean Sea is warmer than usual,” he said.

“It was very risky that this would happen. A cold mass of air would come down here and meet the warm air from the Mediterranean and lead to very heavy rain.

“In the 1980s there was something similar but not as extensive as now. It covered a very wide area, not just one or two villages.”

A warming climate leads to more water in the air and makes these rainfall events “more intense, more frequent and more extensive”. “Four days ago, the State Meteorological Agency said it was very risky,” he added. “The science is very clear.

“But it’s the regional government that has to deal with this crisis—and the ruling party is the conservative PP. They knew this could happen but they didn’t close the schools or tell people not to go to work.

“Yesterday they were behaving like this was just a normal day. Employers were telling their employees to go to work.

“The government issued a warning on people’s mobile phones to tell people to stay where they are. But it was issued too late—at around 6pm.

“The regional government was saying, ‘Don’t stop the economy—continue with business as usual.’.”

The PP had been in a coalition with the far right Vox party until July this year. Vox say climate change doesn’t exist. Its leader Santiago Abascal has dismissed climate regulations as an “excuse to destroy what little is left of our national industry”.

Vox’s election manifesto talked about repealing the Spanish state’s climate change act, ending a ban on the sale of diesel and petrol cars by 2035.

The coalition shut down the emergency response service, which the previous Labour-type PSOE government had set up.

It pushed through cuts to health care and education, especially in small towns that are now on the front line of the catastrophic floods

Businesses also tried to stay open and defend their profits as the flooding hit. “Ikea runs one of the biggest shopping malls,” he said. “It didn’t close the shops and the workers had to sleep there.

“In another shopping mall 700 people had to sleep inside. Many workers had to go onto the roofs of buildings—they are probably among the dead.

“Truck drivers were also caught in the middle of it. There is an image on social media of a van from one of the biggest supermarkets—Mercadona—stranded in the floods with firefighters trying to rescue the driver.

“He had to deliver in the middle of this weather. When they put the video out, they tried to blur the image but people realised.”

Mercado’s owner Juan Roig is from Valencia. People are outraged that he pockets billions while his workers go out in all weathers.

Jesus said, “This is going to happen again and more and more frequently with climate change. That is what the models say will happen and what is happening. There is drought. There is not enough water for the crops and now flooding. We have had droughts here in the south for five years now.

“We have to change the system. We need to stop polluting and to build in safe areas.

“We are at the edge of the cliff of abrupt climate change—and if the rich don’t stop what they are doing we will fall off.”