The floods in Spain show we urgently need ways to practise survival in a climate-changed world

Without creating an action plan and knowing exactly how to implement it, death tolls will always be high when a heat record is broken or a new region experiences hurricane-scale forces of rain

Cars half submerged after floods in Valencia. Picture: AP /Alberto Saiz

Battered cars and other debris are piled up in the streets, large swaths of Valencia remain underwater, and Spain is in mourning. On Sunday, anger erupted as the king and queen of Spain were pelted with mud and other objects by protesters. Why were so many lives lost in a flood that was well forecasted in a wealthy country?

From the global north’s vantage point, the climate crisis, caused by the burning of coal, oil and gas, has long been seen as a distant threat, affecting poor people in the global south. This misconception has perpetuated a false sense of security.