Global Warming's Role in Hurricane Harvey

Last week, it was reported that Hurricane Harvey was a 1-in-1,000-year flood event. That statistic has fueled the sense that our weather  from mass flooding in Bangladesh and India, to forest fires in California  has become biblical.

But for climate scientists like Adam Sobel, there’s the question of actual attribution. What can scientifically be chalked up to climate change, and what’s just a normal weather pattern? Sobel is the director of Columbia University’s Initiative on Extreme Weather and Climate and the author of “Storm Surge.” He says that the 1-in-1,000-year statistic is misleading, and that even though we can’t say for sure, hurricanes like Harvey provide important teaching moments for a country that often misses the point about climate change.

This segment is hosted by Todd Zwillich.