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What challenges do residents of Prek Touch face due to climate change?
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Hello, short wavers. I am NPR correspondent Camilla Dominovsky, filling in as host. And today we are going on a trip with Rebecca Herscher from NPR's Climate Desk. Hey, Becky.
Hi.
So where are we headed?
We're going to Cambodia, specifically to the central Cambodian village of Prek Tush. It's right next to the Nikang River.
And when were you there?
So I was there in December. I visited with an NPR team that included producer Ryan Kelman and interpreter Tat Odom. And we wanted to visit this particular place because of something kind of surprising that's happening there, something related to its location, which is right next to this massive river.
The Mekong River, right? One of the biggest rivers in the world.
Yeah, yeah. And this river is everything to the people in this community. It's a fishing village. On the afternoon that we arrived, some women were fixing fishing nets. Others were cleaning the day's catch. A lot of the men who had gone out fishing really early in the morning were resting. Kids were messing around on the boats, which are parked all along the edge of the river.
That sounds amazing, actually.
Yeah, really idyllic. You know, life is good there in many, many ways. But living next to the Mekong also means that floods are a part of life. And like a lot of places, the floods here are getting more severe because of climate change, which means they're getting more dangerous for the people who live near the water. And the people in Praktush and in other parts of Cambodia are using really simple technology to protect themselves from these increasingly extreme floods.
So today on the show, the profound life-saving power of simple low-tech weather warnings and the quest to protect everyone on the planet from climate-driven disasters. I'm Camilla Dominovsky, and you're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
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Okay, Becky, you said that the floods in Cambodia and in a lot of parts of the world are getting worse because of climate change. Why is that, like, scientifically important?
Okay, so there are a couple reasons. One is sea level rise. So as the earth heats up, water that used to be permanently frozen, like glaciers and polar ice caps, are melting. And that's adding water to the oceans. The oceans are also getting hotter. Hotter water expands. So it takes up more space. And so you add that all up and sea levels are rising all over the world, which is causing more severe flooding for people who live on the coast. The other big reason, though, is rain. I really feel like this one flies under the radar. Like everyone's always thinking about sea level rise. But rain is a really big deal. A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture. So when it rains, it pours, literally. And when a lot of water falls in a short period of time, the ground can't soak it all up.
And that is when you get a flood.
Okay, so sea level rise, rain. Which of these is happening in Cambodia?
Well, they're both happening in Cambodia. But rain is the most relevant one in the village we visited. So Cambodia and Southeast Asia more broadly experience monsoons, these massive seasonal rainstorms that cause some flooding. That's a normal thing in this part of the world. But climate change is making monsoons more extreme and less predictable. So periods of unseasonable drought followed by this torrential rain.
And torrential rain causes bigger floods, I have to imagine.
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