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Irma and Harvey lay the costs of climate change denial at Trump’s door

The president’s dismissal of scientific research is doing nothing to protect the livelihoods of ordinary Americans. 

Bob Ward - Sunday 10 September 2017 

As the US comes to terms with its second major weather disaster within a month, an important question is whether the devastation caused by hurricanes Harvey and Irma will convince Donald Trump and his administration of the reality of climate change. 

The president’s luxurious Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida may escape Irma’s wrath, but with the deaths of so many Americans, and billions of dollars in damage to homes and businesses, the costs of climate change denial are beginning to pile up at the door of the White House. 

Just days before Harvey formed in the Atlantic last month, Trump signed an executive order to overturn a policy, introduced by his predecessor Barack Obama, to help American communities and businesses become more resilient against the risks of flooding, which are rising because of climate change. 

But the merciless assault on the US mainland by Harvey and Irma should be forcing the president to recognise the consequences of his arrogance and complacency in dismissing the research and analysis carried out by scientists. 

The flooded streets of Houston and the wind-ravaged homes of south Florida bear the unmistakable fingerprint of extreme weather made worse by manmade greenhouse gas emissions. 

A hurricane is a huge, rotating cluster of thunderstorms that forms above a sea surface that has a temperature of at least 26.5C. It is like a giant engine, transferring heat from the sea surface up into the atmosphere and generating strong winds and heavy rain in the process.

Climate change cannot be blamed for the hurricane count in any single season, nor for the occurrence of any single storm, but there are some ways in which it is making the consequences worse. 

Adapted from: <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/10/hurricane-irma-harvey-climate-change-trump>. Acesso em: 17 set 2017.