Nana Akua clashes with environmentalist as Storm Babet row erupts: 'Don't tell me my questions are silly!'

Nana Akua clashes with environmentalist as Storm Babet row erupts: 'Don't tell me my questions are silly!'

WATCH NOW: Nana Akua in fiery clash over Storm Babet

GB NEWS
Alex Davies

By Alex Davies


Published: 23/10/2023

- 11:59

Updated: 23/10/2023

- 12:48

The GB News host was joined by Jim Dale and Lois Perry on Sunday's show to discuss the impact on Storm Babet on the UK

Nana Akua found herself fiercely defending her line of questioning on Sunday after being told one particular probe was "silly" by meteorologist Jim Dale.

Along with political commentator Lois Perry, the trio debated whether Storm Babet was a consequence of man-made climate change after the devastating weather event claimed three lives.


Babet has also wreaked havoc on the country's airline system with a number of planes being grounded as well as train travel being heavily impacted.

As the debate kicked off, Dale claimed there was a "climate change element" to the recent weather event, which prompted Perry to sarcastically remark: "Nice he didn't blame the entire storm on climate change."

Dale hit back as he asked: "How bad does it have to get for Lois and even yourself [Nana] to say there is a climate change element within this?

"We've got to look globally not just - this is our turn if you like, the floods are our turn," he continued before he suggested Perry asked those affected by the floods if they feel there is a climate change element to the extreme weather.

"The evidence is incontrovertible, it's as simple as that," he added. "What we've got to get to an answer to how we deal with it, irrespective of whether you believe it's man-made climate change or not."

Nana Akua

Nana Akua and Jim Dale clashed over the cause of Storm Babet

GB NEWS

Nana then weighed in to summarise: "It sounds like you're moving away from the notion that climate change is man-made and it sounds like you're accepting the narrative it isn't."

Dale shook his head before Perry asked him: "I just want to ask Jim, why did the monks in Medieval England build floodplains?"

"Sorry?" a confused Dale replied before Perry repeated her question and added it would've been at a time before fossil fuels were used.

"I'm clueless as far as that one's concerned," Dale eventually answered before Perry clarified: "The point I'm trying to make is flood plains have always been created in England for thousands of years.

"Why do you think that is the case if it's all because of climate change?"

Dale replied: "As well as the climate moving, weather moves with it as well, that's part of the equation.

"You've got to differentiate between the two and what you're not doing is exactly that, you've got to be able to do that.

"So yes of course there are catastrophic weather events, pure weather events that do occur from time to time, but there are catastrophic climate-induced events that are also weather events that occur."

Dale went on to say Babet was a climate event with the add-on of catastrophic weather due to the energy it gathered when it started around the Canary Islands and was able to build up as it travelled across Europe.

Nana then quizzed if Dale thought carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was what led to Babet's impact, to which he said: "Overall, yes."

But Dale began to clash with Nana when she asked what percentage of Babet was caused by CO2 in the atmosphere.

"That's a sort of silly question," Dale told Nana, prompting the GB News host to blast back: "No, don't tell me my questions are silly!

Nana Akua

Nana Akua hosted the debate with Jim Dale and Lois Perry

GB NEWS

"There are no silly questions when people are asking (after) you've made a statement and I'm asking you - you said a portion of it is climate change.

"So I'm asking in your mind, how big is that portion?" Nana added to which Dale attempted to answer: "I'm saying it's significant enough to result in what you're seeing now."

Perry then weighed in as she claimed reports from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) show there had been little to no significant change in extreme weather in the last 30 years.

But Dale wasn't convinced as he continued to talk over Perry who attempted to delve into the contents of the IPCC's reports, not just summaries.

"It's all about an anti-capitalist agenda, that's all it's about... it's not about being green," Perry claimed to Dale when she referred to the summaries and press releases of certain climate change reports.

Dale hit back: "These are eminent scientists who put this stuff out! They're not a couple of people sat in the back of wardrobe pressing buttons like they do on Twitter."

The debate drew to a tense conclusion when Perry insisted once again that climate change reports often differ in contents from what the world sees in summaries, while Dale told her: "You need to look around, you need to see what's gone on in the last two years."

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