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.