B1 · Intermediate
10 min
climate changeextreme weathersouth asiainequalityenvironment
The Sky That Kills: Bangladesh, Lightning, and the Climate
El cielo que mata: Bangladesh, los rayos y el clima
This week, fourteen people were killed by lightning strikes in Bangladesh. Fletcher and Octavio dig into why this country is so brutally exposed to climate change, what the science says about lightning and warming temperatures, and what it means for the future.
Esta semana, catorce personas murieron por rayos en Bangladesh. Fletcher y Octavio hablan sobre por qué este país sufre tanto con el clima, qué dice la ciencia sobre los rayos y el calentamiento global, y qué significa todo esto para el futuro.
8 essential B1-level terms from this episode, with translations and example sentences in Spanish.
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| rayo | lightning bolt / lightning strike | El rayo cayó cerca del campo de arroz. |
| inundación | flood | Cada año, las inundaciones destruyen muchas casas en Bangladesh. |
| adaptación | adaptation | La adaptación al cambio climático es necesaria pero no es suficiente. |
| cada vez más | more and more / increasingly | Las tormentas son cada vez más fuertes en esta región. |
| emisiones | emissions | Bangladesh produce muy pocas emisiones de CO2. |
| nivel del mar | sea level | El nivel del mar sube cada año por el cambio climático. |
| atmósfera | atmosphere | Cuando la temperatura sube, hay más energía en la atmósfera. |
| vulnerable | vulnerable | Los agricultores son los más vulnerables durante las tormentas. |
Fourteen people died from lightning this week.
Not floods, not a cyclone, not a heat wave.
Lightning.
In Bangladesh.
Sí, y para muchas personas en el mundo, Bangladesh es solo un nombre en un mapa.
Yes, and for many people in the world, Bangladesh is just a name on a map.
Pero es un país con ciento setenta millones de personas.
But it's a country with a hundred and seventy million people.
Es uno de los países más grandes del mundo por población.
It's one of the largest countries in the world by population.
A hundred and seventy million people packed into a country roughly the size of Iowa.
And it sits almost entirely on a river delta.
Exacto.
Exactly.
El delta del Ganges y el Brahmaputra.
The Ganges and Brahmaputra delta.
Es tierra muy plana, muy baja.
Very flat, very low land.
Cuando hay tormentas fuertes, el agua no tiene adónde ir.
When there are powerful storms, the water has nowhere to go.
Y cuando hay rayos, tampoco hay montañas ni árboles altos para proteger a la gente.
And when there's lightning, there are no mountains or tall trees to protect people.
That flat, open landscape is a death trap in an electrical storm.
So what's the climate connection?
Because this didn't feel like a random weather event to me when I read it.
La conexión es directa.
The connection is direct.
Cuando la temperatura del aire sube, hay más energía en la atmósfera.
When air temperature rises, there's more energy in the atmosphere.
Más energía significa tormentas más intensas.
More energy means more intense storms.
Y tormentas más intensas significan más rayos.
And more intense storms mean more lightning.
Los científicos dicen que por cada grado de temperatura que sube, los rayos aumentan un diez por ciento.
Scientists say that for every degree of temperature increase, lightning strikes go up by ten percent.
Ten percent per degree.
That's not a rounding error.
That's a substantial, measurable shift.
Y Bangladesh ya tiene el clima del monzón, que trae lluvias muy intensas entre junio y septiembre.
And Bangladesh already has a monsoon climate, which brings very intense rains between June and September.
Pero ahora las tormentas son más fuertes, llegan antes y duran más tiempo.
But now the storms are stronger, they arrive earlier, and they last longer.
Cada vez más frecuentes, cada vez más peligrosas.
More and more frequent, more and more dangerous.
I spent some time in Dhaka back in 2003, reporting on textile labor conditions.
The monsoon there is genuinely unlike anything I'd experienced.
You don't get wet.
You get submerged.
Sí, y en esa época, los rayos ya mataban a muchas personas.
Yes, and even then, lightning was already killing many people.
Pero en los últimos veinte años, el número aumentó mucho.
But in the last twenty years, the number increased a lot.
En algunos años, los rayos mataron a más de trescientas personas solo en Bangladesh.
In some years, lightning killed more than three hundred people in Bangladesh alone.
More than three hundred in a single year.
And who's dying?
I'd imagine it's not people in office buildings.
No, claro que no.
No, of course not.
Son agricultores.
They're farmers.
Personas que trabajan en los campos de arroz.
People working in rice fields.
Pescadores en los ríos.
Fishermen on the rivers.
Niños que juegan fuera.
Children playing outside.
Las personas más pobres, que no tienen acceso a edificios seguros durante las tormentas.
The poorest people, who don't have access to safe buildings during storms.
Which tells you everything about how climate change distributes its costs.
The people who contributed least to the problem are the ones standing in an open field when the storm hits.
Es exactamente así.
That's exactly right.
Bangladesh produce menos del uno por ciento de las emisiones globales de CO2.
Bangladesh produces less than one percent of global CO2 emissions.
Menos del uno por ciento.
Less than one percent.
Pero sufre las consecuencias como pocos países en el mundo.
But it suffers the consequences like few countries in the world.
Less than one percent.
[gasp] I knew the number was low but hearing it next to the death toll from this week is something else entirely.
Y no es solo los rayos.
And it's not just the lightning.
Bangladesh tiene también el problema de las inundaciones.
Bangladesh also has the problem of flooding.
Cada año, entre el veinte y el treinta por ciento del país se inunda durante el monzón.
Every year, between twenty and thirty percent of the country floods during the monsoon.
En años malos, más del sesenta por ciento.
In bad years, more than sixty percent.
Sixty percent of the country underwater.
That's not a natural disaster anymore.
That's a way of life.
Y la gente en Bangladesh aprendió a vivir con eso.
And the people of Bangladesh learned to live with that.
Hay casas que construyen sobre plataformas para sobrevivir las inundaciones.
There are houses built on platforms to survive the floods.
Hay escuelas flotantes.
There are floating schools.
Hay hospitales en barcos.
There are hospitals on boats.
Es increíble la capacidad de adaptación.
The capacity for adaptation is incredible.
I actually visited one of those floating schools in 2003, an NGO project in a rural district north of Dhaka.
Forty kids, sitting on a boat, doing math.
It was extraordinary and also completely heartbreaking, because nobody should have to build a floating school.
Tienes razón.
You're right.
La adaptación es necesaria, pero no es suficiente.
Adaptation is necessary, but it's not enough.
Porque el problema crece más rápido que las soluciones.
Because the problem grows faster than the solutions.
El nivel del mar sube, y Bangladesh tiene una costa muy larga en el Golfo de Bengala.
Sea levels are rising, and Bangladesh has a very long coastline on the Bay of Bengal.
And the Bay of Bengal is particularly dangerous because of how cyclones form and intensify there.
It's basically a funnel.
Sí.
Yes.
Y el ciclón más mortal de la historia moderna fue allí: el Ciclón Bhola, en 1970.
And the deadliest cyclone in modern history was there: Cyclone Bhola, in 1970.
Murieron entre trescientas mil y quinientas mil personas.
Between three hundred thousand and five hundred thousand people died.
Es difícil saber el número exacto porque fue una catástrofe total.
It's hard to know the exact number because it was a total catastrophe.
And worth adding that the inadequate response from the Pakistani government, Bangladesh was East Pakistan then, was one of the sparks that led to the 1971 independence war.
Disaster becomes politics becomes war.
Es un buen ejemplo de cómo los desastres climáticos y naturales pueden cambiar la historia de un país.
It's a good example of how climate and natural disasters can change the history of a country.
Y también de cómo los gobiernos responden, o no responden, a los más vulnerables.
And also of how governments respond, or don't respond, to the most vulnerable.
Bangladesh has since built one of the most impressive early warning systems in the developing world.
Cyclone shelters, community radio alerts, volunteer networks.
They took Bhola seriously in a way the rest of the world hasn't always taken its own vulnerabilities.
Sí, y también intentaron hacer algo con los rayos.
Yes, and they also tried to do something about the lightning.
El gobierno plantó millones de palmeras porque las palmeras atraen los rayos y protegen a las personas en los campos.
The government planted millions of palm trees because palm trees attract lightning and protect people in the fields.
Es una solución simple, barata y natural.
It's a simple, cheap, and natural solution.
Palm trees as lightning rods.
That's genuinely clever.
Though I imagine the scale of the problem outpaces any number of palm trees you can plant.
Claro.
Of course.
No es suficiente.
It's not enough.
Bangladesh también tiene un sistema de alertas por teléfono móvil para avisar a la gente cuando hay tormentas eléctricas.
Bangladesh also has a mobile phone alert system to warn people when there are electrical storms.
Pero muchos agricultores no tienen teléfono, o no pueden parar de trabajar aunque llegue la alerta.
But many farmers don't have a phone, or they can't stop working even when the alert arrives.
Can't stop working.
That's the brutal economic reality underneath all of this.
If your daily wage depends on being in that field, a storm warning is a luxury.
Exacto.
Exactly.
Y eso nos lleva a la pregunta más grande: ¿quién paga por el cambio climático?
And that brings us to the bigger question: who pays for climate change?
Los países ricos produjeron la mayoría de las emisiones históricas.
Rich countries produced the majority of historical emissions.
Pero los países pobres como Bangladesh pagan el precio más alto.
But poor countries like Bangladesh pay the highest price.
This was the whole argument behind the Loss and Damage fund that came out of COP27 in 2022.
The idea that wealthy nations owe something concrete to the countries on the front line.
Not charity.
Compensation.
Sí, y fue una victoria importante para los países en desarrollo.
Yes, and it was an important victory for developing countries.
Pero después de la COP, el dinero llegó muy lentamente.
But after COP, the money came very slowly.
Las promesas son fáciles.
Promises are easy.
El dinero real es mucho más difícil.
Real money is much harder.
The gap between the communiqué and the bank transfer.
That gap has killed people.
Literally.
Y mientras los países ricos debaten, Bangladesh tiene que actuar.
And while rich countries debate, Bangladesh has to act.
Los científicos calculan que para el año 2050, el nivel del mar puede subir suficiente para inundar de forma permanente el diecisiete por ciento del territorio del país.
Scientists calculate that by 2050, sea levels could rise enough to permanently flood seventeen percent of the country's territory.
Seventeen percent permanently gone.
That's tens of millions of people who will need to go somewhere.
This is the climate refugee crisis that nobody wants to talk about yet, but it's already starting.
Ya está pasando.
It's already happening.
Muchas familias de las zonas costeras ya se mudaron a Dhaka.
Many families from coastal areas already moved to Dhaka.
Dhaka es una de las ciudades que crece más rápido en el mundo, en parte porque la gente no puede vivir en el campo.
Dhaka is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, partly because people can no longer live in the countryside.
El cambio climático ya es una fuerza de migración interna.
Climate change is already a force driving internal migration.
And Dhaka itself is not safe.
It sits on a floodplain.
You end up with climate migrants moving from one flood-prone place to another, slightly less flood-prone place.
It's movement without safety.
Por eso, para mí, la historia de los catorce muertos por rayos esta semana no es solo una noticia triste.
That's why, for me, the story of the fourteen people killed by lightning this week isn't just sad news.
Es un símbolo de algo más grande.
It's a symbol of something larger.
Es el clima que ya cambió, y que va a seguir cambiando, y que afecta primero a los que menos pueden defenderse.
It's the climate that already changed, and that will keep changing, and that hits first those who can least defend themselves.
That phrase you just used, "los que menos pueden defenderse," those who can least defend themselves.
That landed.
And it made me think about something you said earlier, "cada vez más." You used that three or four times in this conversation and I've been meaning to ask you about it.
Sí, "cada vez más" es muy útil.
Yes, 'cada vez más' is very useful.
Significa que algo aumenta con el tiempo.
It means something is increasing over time.
Por ejemplo: "Las tormentas son cada vez más fuertes." O "El agua sube cada vez más." Es como decir "more and more" en inglés.
For example: 'The storms are getting stronger and stronger.' Or 'The water rises more and more.' It's like saying 'more and more' in English.
Each time, more.
Cada vez más.
And the opposite would be, what, "cada vez menos?" Each time, less?
Exacto.
Exactly.
"Cada vez menos agua, cada vez menos tierra, cada vez menos tiempo." Es la misma estructura.
'Less and less water, less and less land, less and less time.' Same structure.
Y puedes usar también adjetivos: "cada vez más difícil", "cada vez más urgente".
And you can also use adjectives: 'more and more difficult,' 'more and more urgent.' It's a very natural expression in Spanish.
Es una expresión muy natural en español.
"Cada vez más urgente." More and more urgent.
Given what we just talked about for the last half hour, that feels like the right note to end on.
Sí.
Yes.
Y la próxima vez que Fletcher intente usar "cada vez más" en español, yo espero que no diga que el clima es "cada vez más embarazado".
And the next time Fletcher tries to use 'cada vez más' in Spanish, I hope he doesn't say that the climate is 'more and more pregnant.'
I walked right into that.
[chuckle] Every episode, somehow, every single episode.