>> building a better bay area. moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc 7 news. kristen: you are watching getting answers. we ask experts your questions every day at 3:00 to get answers . the climate and environment are key parts of our commitment to building a better bay area and today that will be the focus of our whole show. we will dive into this winter, but it will mean our california and climate action, or lack of action on the federal fro. tor joe manchin walked away from the negotiating table over the climate portion of the build back better agenda. an environmental policy expert

will join us to examine the options the slow the warming of the planet. first, a brutal heat wave sweeping the u.k.. london saw its third hottest day ever in recorded history. tomorrow it will be even hotter. joining us is meteorologist mike nicco who will be with us for the whole show. we will look at global arming and the impact from multiple perspectives. glad us to provide insight into what is happening. mike: there is a lot to talk about. london is the big story. how bad was it in the u.k. today? how much worse will it get tomorrow? mike: 98 unofficially today. tomorrow, 102 is what the forecast from their national weather service equivalent, and that would be the hottest temperature ever come of the hottest right now is i think 101.8 set a couple years ago.

they are looking at something that is historic and never felt before in i don't know how many centuries the u.k. has been inhabited. this is unprecedented and shocking. kristen: we are looking at scenes from london today. as people try to stay cool, we get temperatures like that in fresno, hotter than that in phoenix. when you have triple digits in london, with them not getting temperatures like these, why does it make it more dangerous? mike: you can equate it to san francisco. how many people in san francisco have air conditioners? none, unless they bought the portable kind or they can put a window unit in. london is the same. they have never needed infrastructure like that in any of their buildings, no matter how old or how new. they just don't have the capacity to cool themselves down

on hot days. especially at night, when it is the worst, when around here we have dry air so lots of times it can be 100 in the east bay, the south bay but at night it will fall into the 50's and 60's. you can open the windows and cooled the house down. when you have humidity in the air, or the place like london that has so much hard scape, it holds the heat all night or re-radiates it and keeps it hot all night. you can't find any relief. a lot of times heat advisories aren't always issued for high temperatures, it is going to be what is the temperature overnight, when our body is supposed to be sleeping and repairing itself, but it can't if it is very hot? that is why the longer you are in a heat wave, which thankfully, this should be over for them tomorrow, the more your body weakens and the more susceptible it is to the heat. it is not an official stat but more people die from heat than

just about any other weather event. kristen: this is a short 1, 2 days, but they aren't getting much relief tonight. right now it is overnight for them and it is hot. i want to show you, they are worried about the rails buckling on transit, subways. they don't have air conditioning on the platforms. this sign a friend of mine in london captured on transit. avoid traveling, extreme hot weather. they are limiting it to essential travel only. it does not just this. you have schools and doctors offices closed and museums closed. this is not the only place. london is not the only place experiencing extreme weather. mike: they are experiencing it on the temperature scale but other parts of europe are definitely just as hot, if not hotter, especially compared to average. it has been extremely dry, which

is why we are seeing fires especially the one in bordeaux, france. they have had fires in bordeaux, france, fires in spain, italy dealing with it also and there are other areas we don't get as much information out of because of their governments. siberia is warming faster than any other place on the planet. the permafrost is going away. when you lose permafrost, there could be bacteria underneath the permafrost that we may not be able to fight with our current state of our bodies because it could be centuries-old that we have never had to deal with. we have seen parts of siberia on fire the last couple summers. it is opening a whole new set of circumstances and a lot of that smoke that goes into the atmosphere creates even more problems. kristen: in hawaii we showed video of crazy wave action. talk about what is happening there. i think the sea level is either

rising or getting crazy big waves. mike: both. you can see it at home with the king tides, we are seeing more areas around the bay flood during king tides because sea level is rising. in hawaii you had hurricane darby, a category 3, generating some swells that were coming at the big island. they had a high surf i think warning out for waves up to 20-24 feet. this one you can see going over two story condos. that is a roadway. that was one of the biggest ones we have seen. one wiped out and almost in -- almost an entire wedding party over the weekend. hurricanes are essentially heat engines. the hotter the water is, the more energy those heat engines create, and the more energy they create, the bigger swells they create. darby weekend to a tropical low what once those waves are set in

motion, it takes a long time for ats at you saw in hawaii. isten: that is not the north shore where they are known for monster waves. that is the western part of the big island, the kona, dry side because -- where tourists like to go mike:. mike: you wouldn't think it -- i hurricane from the east would create swells on the southwest side. kristen: going back to a global level, i should point to a news clip we have seen, this is a british news anchor saying to a meteorologist, i want us to be happy about the weather. i don't know what has happened to make you fatalistic and harbingers of doom. the anchor points out, we have had heat waves before. but you are warning this is really serious. how do you take that? mike: sadly, i take it personally, as may be we are not

yelling from the rooftops loud enough. maybe people still don't believe that what is happening is accelerating at a faster pace than we originally thought. you had heat waves in the u.k. before. she referenced one in 1976, which is how many decades ago? now, you have them more frequently. 46 years. you have them more frequently, you have them for a longer duration and when you reach the peak" back down, a lot of times you set a new floor. the next time you get the same type of heat, it starts from a higher place and it can warm even higher because of that. you are resetting the boundaries of what we would normally call average weather, that is becoming abnormal to begin with and then you add this extreme on top of it and you are seeing it across the globe. the reason you see it more in the northern hemisphere is

because we have more land in the northern hemisphere. land has a heat capacity much less than water. water can hold more heat before it changes temperature. you feel it off the coast, 50 degree water and the land could be 100. because the northern hemisphere has that, that is one reason we are warming up so much. we don't have that dark, ground -- antarctica, ground that is frozen. the north pole is frozen water. for the last 30 years give or take, the ice continues to shrink every year. that is our air conditioning system for the northern hemisphere. if we don't have the ice, there is nothing to stop the warming. we are taking a live this heat, transporting it up to antarctica or above the arctic circle, and what we see in places like greenland, underneath the top of the ice sheet is where it is

melting faster than on top of it , especially if it is overwater because the water is warmer. kristen: lots of people will look at these events happening right now to say we need urgent action on climate change. don't go away because next, a uc santa barbara professor will join us to talk about the stalled climate legislation in

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and find out what your case could be worth. ♪ call one eight hundred, eight million three decades, congress is failing to finalize action on climate legislation. west virginia senator joe manchin sealed its doom when he pulled the plug on negotiations for president biden's build back better agenda. he told fellow democrats he won't support funding for any

climate or clean energy programs. joining us to talk about the impact is a professor of climate and energy policy at uc santa barbara. professor, you are one expert to work on this bill. how profoundly devastated are you when senator manchin walked away and said he was done? >> i was very upset. i cried. many other staffers and activists cried. senator manchin has been stringing along the democratic party for the past 18 months, pretending he takes climate change seriously, saying he cares about his grandchildren. his actions last week were really devastating. they showed that those were lies, that he isn't serious about the climate crisis and he is fine with condemning his own grandchildren to a broken planet. kristen: he cited inflation, tax incentives for clean energy. we want get into -- won't get

into that but what was the deal he walked away from? what would that have enacted had it passed? >> funny you should mention inflation because you are right, senator manchin said it was because of inflation. this package would have dealt with inflation. it would have made energy bills, which are a key driver of inflation right now, think about what is happening at the pump when people field our cars. that is a big part of where inflation is coming from because what of putin did in ukraine driving up global oil prices. this bill would have made it cheaper for everyday americans to buy an electric vehicle, making it more affordable and fighting inflation. it would have supported wind and solar across the country. it would have created made in america jobs for all kinds of clean energy technology manufacturing. all the things he says he cares about, like american manufacturing jobs and fighting inflation, that is what the bill would have done, which is why it

is more painful to see what senator manchin decided to do. mike: can i ask something? kristen: i know we have many questions. mike: a lot of it is on the political side and i don't want to put you in a box, but he is from a coal state. a lot of jobs in west virginia are tied to that. was there something his state wasn't going to get out of this that may be other states were, that made him pull the plug on it? >> unfortunately no. senator manchin has had so much leverage. he could have delivered amazing resources and investments to west virginia. i'm sure he could have gotten fossil investments out of this deal. senator manchin was not acting in the interest of his constituents, people who work in the fossil fuel industry or people who don't in west virginia. when we wonder who he is working for, we can look at the fact that he has received more campaign contributions from the

fossil fuel industry than any other politician in congress right now. that includes every single republican. we can also look at the fact that he has personally profited from coal. over 10 years, senator manchin has made $5 million from the coal industry. he makes $500,000 every year and that is three times as much as his senate salary. it is not about doing the right thing for his constituents. senator manchin is doing the right thing for himself, lining his own pockets. kristen: what is an option now? what are some levers that can be pulled? the big goal is as i understand, we want to limit global warming to less than 1.5 celsius. i think that is 2.7 fahrenheit. mike: 1.8. kristen: is that doable? what do we have to do to make that happen in the time we have? >> great question.

president biden wants to cut carbon pollution in the u.s. by half by 2030. that would be our contribution to the global target of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees. we are seeing, as we were talking about, this is about 1.2 degrees of warming looks like. look how devastating it is. thousands of people dying in europe. last summer across the pacific northwest, more than a thousand people died in the united states. this is 1.2 degrees. imagine what 1.5 looks like. we need to cut carbon pollution in half. this package would have got us two thirds of the way to that goal. without this investment from congress, we will need to see president biden step up with a variety of executive actions and as individuals, we will have to make decisions when we buy our next car. why don't we think about an electric vehicle? can we think about air conditioning in the bay area, why not put in a heat pump so we

can also take out gas at the same time? people don't know, a heat pump is an electric technology that can heat your home in the winter and cool it in the summer and it does it very efficiently and doesn't work why are to use fossil fuels -- require you to use fossil fuels. kristen: mike looks into that. what do you think? mike: they have been around, i remember as a kid when heat pumps came out. that has been several decades obviously. one of the things, i have lived in the coldest parts of the country, i lived in minnesota for a while. i don't know how well heat pumping woodworking a place like that. maybe you do, i don't want to put you on the spot, but a lot of those places especially new england use oil to heat their houses still, or they have the big huge tanks on the outside of the house that get filled before every winter and they are burning oil. if we could get rid of those to start with, that might help a

little. >> you are talking to someone who was born in canada so i know all about oil heated homes. actually, maine have some of the highest heat pump adoption in the country because their government has focused on this. in places like minnesota, we are seeing new technology, just a couple weeks ago a company called glenn next announced with the department of energy they had a big breakthrough in cold-weather heat pump technology. these technologies don't just work for the bay area. they will work for the coldest parts of the united states. mike: i lived in minnesota and built the house when i was there. they build houses a lot differently in other parts of the country where the weather is more extreme. most of our houses are framed with two by fours. most of their houses are framed by two by sixes. they wrapped the outside of the house two or three more times

with insulation. i couldn't even go into my attic in minnesota, it was sealed off and had probably three feet of insulation in it. that is how well the houses are built. we don't quite build houses that well in other parts of the country. is there anything like that that could happen? is that too cost prohibitive? >> people might not know a few weeks ago, governor newsom passed a budget that included $54 billion in clean energy and climate investments. that is an historic amount of money. it is like 10% of what the federal government was going to spend. that money includes investments in helping californians by a heat pump. it is a program called the tech program and it can help you get heat pumps to heat and cool your homes, get a heat pump hot-water heater. we are talking $3000 off of each

of those pieces of equipment. there are programs in california, and governor newsom is providing dollars to re-up those programs. californians can make their homes more energy-efficient efficient and put in heat pumps. kristen: so much great information. i hope our conversation about energy policy challenges is just the start. appreciate you joining us today. >> thanks for having me on. kristen: coming up next, mike will be here and he will look ahead to winter. we are on la niña watch. why it seems like it is easy

to do. all right. we have breaking news in marin county, a vegetation fire is burning. we have pictures. you can see the smoke here. this is northbound highway 101 near marin city. we haven't heard of evacuations. there are homes on the hill hold

of the fire doesn't seem to be big at the moment. we will bring you any new information on our mobile app and the news at 4:00. this happened while we were talking. it does look like the winds are pretty steady, not too bad. mike: they will pick up at 3:00, that is usually the witching hour for winds to pick up. they bring a little more humidity and what i noticed is the small fire, it was putting out more gray smoke than black smoke, which means it is still in an area of vegetation as opposed to burning man made things, which are much more toxic and harder to put out at times. so there is that. by looking at the size of it, hopefully firefighters can get it taken care of. it is not in an extreme area. kristen: speaking of extremes, forecasters are forecasting another year of la niña this winter. i think it will be the third.

talk to us about what that would mean if we have that and why that doesn't look good for the drought. mike: 66% chance of la niña continuing for october, november and december, the beginning of the wet season. la niña means less than average amounts of wet weather in california. that wasn't the case in oregon and washington, where they almost had too much and had issues. that is part of the extreme nature. what does it mean? we go through the usual cycle of, we get enough rain, the hills turned green and then brown. it does not necessarily the grass i'm concerned about. what you don't see are the shrubs and the trees. you don't see them stressed until it is too late to save them. the amount of moisture they are holding right now is lower than it should be, and that is really where our biggest wildfires come from, the trees.

when we talk about spreading of wildfires, it is when they jump from canopy to canopy when they get into tolerant trees, and the embers shoot out. what you are looking at, the grass is on fire. a few shrubs but then it starts to get into the trees and that is when you have problems. trees are susceptible from the drought and from -- i can't remember the name of the beetle that killed a bunch of trees. there are a bunch of those sitting there waiting to go up in flames. so a double whammy in that respect. kristen: is there anything we can do to prepare? for that possibility of la niña? mike: what we are doing, using as little water as possible but to still keep our lives as comfortable as possible. the reservoirs are ok but they will be hit hard and if we come out of next year as far as the reservoir levels, even lower than what they came out this

year, then we will have some real issues next year. kristen: thanks, mike. appreciate you joining the program today. so much insight. getting answers will continue in just a moment. a reminder, you can get our live newscast, breaking news and more with our mobile app. it is available on apple tv, android tv, fire tv and roku. sear

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you u mit bebe sprisised ♪ the barnes firm injury attorneys ♪ ♪ call one eight hundred, eight million ♪ joining us on this interactive show, getting answers. we are following this small brush fire, vegetation fire burning now in marin city and marin county, northbound highway 101. it doesn't appear to have spread

too much, limited to the brush we hope and we will bring you the latest at 4:00. right now, stay tonight several developing stories as by come on the air, the storms hitting the east, the record-breaking heat. and deadly heat in europe, sweeping several countries. severe thunderstorm watch in side effect from washington, d.c., to new york. making roads impassable, drivers leavi leaving cars, timing it out. americans under heat alerts. concerns for the texas power grid, officials urging residents to conserve power. hundreds dead in portugal, train surrounded by