In the US, now is never the time to talk about climate change

Washington: It's as bizarre as it is American – the immediate aftermath of a crisis is never the time to debate what might have caused it. 

A woman walks through the debris at the Seabreeze
 trailer park in the Florida Keys on Tuesday, after
Hurricane Irma hit the area. 

Big losses in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? No – to question the wisdom or management of the wars was to disrespect the memory of soldiers who had died. 

Gun violence? No, no – talking about gun control after yet another massacre is insensitive to the grief of the victims' families.

And so it was on the weekend, when a reporter was rude enough to ask US Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt about the impact of climate change on monster hurricanes that have been smashing southern states, he responded: "To have any kind of focus on the cause and effect of the storm; versus helping people, or actually facing the effect of the storm, is misplaced…very, very insensitive to these people in Florida.”

Read the story by Paul McGeough in today’s Melbourne Age - “In the US, now is never the time to talk about climate change.”