[Okay, buddy, he's joining you now, and he looks deeply interested in wherever this is going - the sort of thing that makes it plain that he really doesn't have much of a concept of this outside of what he's being informed of now.]

And the people, where you're from, have direct influence over this...? [He seems to realize, after a pause, that he didn't actually answer any questions with that.] The world as I know it was created to be self-sustaining. It balances itself. We can have some influence over what happens, but generally floods and the weather system isn't within our control.