Thinking the Unthinkable with Nik Gowing
Sep 16, 2026 · 23 min · 6 segments
Can we successfully adapt to a changing climate before disaster strikes? David Shukman warns that "this is happening with a speed and on a scale that no one is ready for." David Shukman, former BBC…
Nik GowingHostDefinitely people are starting, but far too slowly to wake up to the dangers that we face.
The phrase global warming, I think masks a violence, a kind of malevolence, an unleashing of the kind of extremes that you've just described.
It takes us to a different kind of world where I think people need to recognize that our climate is becoming more hostile and less predictable.
Certainly, there were predictions, let's say, five years ago that Britain wouldn't hit 40 degrees till well into the 2030s.
I mean, who would have thought it possible that France would have to evacuate 200,000 people from wildfires, that crucial military facilities near Bordeaux would be threatened by wildfire, that tens of thousands of people would be brought to a premature end because extreme heat proved intolerable for them.
We're seeing transport, industry, business, the great waterways across Europe affected.
You talk about adapting to a changing climate still, as you put it, still hasn't got the traction it deserves.
Are you stunned by this, given the enormity of what is happening? And governments are there to govern on our behalf, to actually make...
to guarantee our security, guarantee our safety, are they still not really understanding the enormity and the speed of what is changing?
I mean, one of the most, one of many really shocking examples I came across was wildfires in London burning 40 houses.
Definitely people are starting, but far too slowly to wake up to the dangers that we face.
The phrase global warming, I think masks a violence, a kind of malevolence, an unleashing of the kind of extremes that you've just described.
It takes us to a different kind of world where I think people need to recognize that our climate is becoming more hostile and less predictable.
Certainly, there were predictions, let's say, five years ago that Britain wouldn't hit 40 degrees till well into the 2030s.
I mean, who would have thought it possible that France would have to evacuate 200,000 people from wildfires, that crucial military facilities near Bordeaux would be threatened by wildfire, that tens of thousands of people would be brought to a premature end because extreme heat proved intolerable for them.
We're seeing transport, industry, business, the great waterways across Europe affected.
You talk about adapting to a changing climate still, as you put it, still hasn't got the traction it deserves.
Are you stunned by this, given the enormity of what is happening? And governments are there to govern on our behalf, to actually make...
to guarantee our security, guarantee our safety, are they still not really understanding the enormity and the speed of what is changing?
I mean, one of the most, one of many really shocking examples I came across was wildfires in London burning 40 houses.
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