Hurricane Irma Linked to Climate Change? For Some, a Very ‘Insensitive’ Question

WASHINGTON — Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, says it is insensitive to discuss climate change in the midst of deadly storms.

Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental
 Protection Agency, at the White House in
June - he says it is insensitive to discuss
climate change now, but Republican Miami mayor, Tomás Regalado, says if not now, when?

Tomás Regalado, the Republican mayor of Miami whose citizens raced to evacuate before Hurricane Irma, says if not now, when?

“This is the time to talk about climate change. This is the time that the president and the E.P.A. and whoever makes decisions needs to talk about climate change,” Mr. Regalado told the Miami Herald. “If this isn’t climate change, I don’t know what is. This is a truly, truly poster child for what is to come.”

For scientists, drawing links between warming global temperatures and the ferocity of hurricanes is about as controversial as talking about geology after an earthquake. But in Washington, where science is increasingly political, the fact that oceans and atmosphere are warming and that the heat is propelling storms into superstorms has become as sensitive as talking about gun control in the wake of a mass shooting.

Read Lisa Friedman’s story in The New York Times - “Hurricane Irma Linked to Climate Change? For Some, a Very ‘Insensitive’ Question.”