Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 12 hours ago
I went on BBC Look East to say something I think we all need to hear: the droughts and the floods are going to keep coming, and they're going to keep getting worse for quite a long time yet. People find it puzzling that we can have both at once, so I explained the mechanism. When the ground bakes hard in a drought, it loses its ability to absorb water. Drought conditions are, ironically, perfect conditions for flash flooding. This summer has woken a lot of us up to that reality, and I don't think we should let ourselves fall back asleep.
The question Andrew put to me was what we actually do about it, and my answer is that adaptation is not rocket science. We're simply not doing it. Government is nowhere near serious enough. Local councils are nowhere near serious enough, and in some cases that is a dangerous error that puts people at risk. What we need is entirely buildable with technology that already exists: sponge cities, urban areas designed to take water in rather than flush it straight out, as the Low Countries are already doing far better than we are. For drought, we need to rethink what we grow and get much better at husbanding our water — new reservoirs, greywater harvesting, water butts on houses and across neighbourhoods. Do it at scale and you get the win-win: better access to water and less flooding. And to those who say Britain's emissions are too small to matter, remember that every province in China can make exactly that argument too. Deep down we all know we have to muck in together on the root cause. But the place to start is where this interview started: with the urgent need to adapt.
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Edited excerpt courtesy of Andrew Sinclair, BBC Look East Evening News, Aug 28th 2026
I went on BBC Look East to say something I think we all need to hear: the droughts and the floods are going to keep coming, and they're going to keep getting worse for quite a long time yet. People find it puzzling that we can have both at once, so I explained the mechanism. When the ground bakes hard in a drought, it loses its ability to absorb water. Drought conditions are, ironically, perfect conditions for flash flooding. This summer has woken a lot of us up to that reality, and I don't think we should let ourselves fall back asleep.
The question Andrew put to me was what we actually do about it, and my answer is that adaptation is not rocket science. We're simply not doing it. Government is nowhere near serious enough. Local councils are nowhere near serious enough, and in some cases that is a dangerous error that puts people at risk. What we need is entirely buildable with technology that already exists: sponge cities, urban areas designed to take water in rather than flush it straight out, as the Low Countries are already doing far better than we are. For drought, we need to rethink what we grow and get much better at husbanding our water — new reservoirs, greywater harvesting, water butts on houses and across neighbourhoods. Do it at scale and you get the win-win: better access to water and less flooding. And to those who say Britain's emissions are too small to matter, remember that every province in China can make exactly that argument too. Deep down we all know we have to muck in together on the root cause. But the place to start is where this interview started: with the urgent need to adapt.
youtube.com/@ClimateMajorityProject-Earth
RupertRead.net
RupertRead.substack.com
twitter.com/GreenRupertRead
https://bsky.app/profile/rupertread.bsky.social
instagram.com/RupertRead
tiktok.com/@GreenRupertRead
facebook.com/GreenRupertRead
Edited excerpt courtesy of Andrew Sinclair, BBC Look East Evening News, Aug 28th 2026
