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

[spanone]

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

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.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/11/climate/hurricane-irma-climate-change.html?mcubz=0

[saidsimplesimon]

1. After all that twit

is a climate and science denier. It will destroy this country with this cabinet of unqualified fools and criminals.

[TheMastersNemesis]

2. GOP/Trump WILL NEVER ADMIT TO CLIMATE CHANGE No Matter How Much Evidence.

Despite obvious signs of climate change the criminal GOP/Trump will more actively suppress any mention of climate change. In fact they would outlaw the term entirely if they could. As long as the GOP is in power they will do all they can to punish and eliminate efforts to mitigate climate change. They will defund all government help on the matter if they can.

[Chasstev365]

3. What a joke!

[gratuitous]

4. Well of course it's insensitive and not timely

Scott Pruitt will let you know when the right time is, but it's not now. Or now. Or now. Ooops, the right time was five minutes ago, and you missed it. Tap, tap, no tap-backs!

[Leith]

5. Insensitive?!

It would not matter one bit to me if my home had been damaged or destroyed, my life in shambles, and not a drop of water or a bite of food in the foreseeable future because of a hurricane if somebody mentioned climate change. I would most likely agree.

It looks like Pruitt is trying to duck action and responsibility. He is more concerned with rethug condemnation than the lives and wellbeing of human beings.

[dalton99a]

6. Let's delay any mention of it until January when it's nice and cold

"What global warming? It is cold"

[LisaM]

7. What a jerk.

I've mentioned it a couple of other places here, but it's like saying, after a person is thrown from a car and killed, "now is not the time to talk about wearing seatbelts".

Uh, it's EXACTLY the time.

[dalton99a]

8. Yep.

[More_Cowbell]

15. Same with gun violence

It's never the time to talk about that, either.

[Achilleaze]

9. republicans dislike being called out on their dangerous lies

A pattern native to liars around the planet. In this case it's damn dangerous for America.

Hey republicans, if you can't face reality and speak truth, then please just STFU and let the American people get on with responding to reality in creative and common-sense ways.

[gtar100]

10. It's not "insensitive", it's *embarrassing* to them.

Too bad the idiots have the microphone. It would make a world of difference if the media actually let intelligent people speak at least as much as they do the demagogues.

[VOX]

13. Not sure if they're capable of experiencing actual embarrassment...

Their turning a blind eye to the insane grifter in the White House is the greatest display of GOP shamelessness yet.

[VOX]

11. "This is not the time to talk about gun laws."

Says the GOP after every incident of mass slaughter. Same with extreme weather events, "it's not the time" to discuss climate change.

But there is NEVER a good time for Republicans to actually address these problems, because they've become absurdly cemented into rigid, highly contrarian positions about what should be common-sense issues.

[CentralMass]

12. Yes we might hurt their profits.

[procon]

14. First rule in puppy training: correct bad behaviors instantly.

If your sweet puppy piddles on the floor instead of outside, don't wait to take corrective action hours later when he snoozing in his bed. Same rule applies to kids.

Same rule applies to Republican con men who want to pee in your cornflakes, lie to your face and call it moo juice. Hit 'em back now, while these disaster images are still fresh and hot and can't be denied, forgotten or replaced by later events.

[spanone]

16. Florida governor Rick Scott bans the terms climate change, global warming

from March 9, 2015

If Florida Gov. Rick Scott didn't want the terms "climate change" or "global warming" officially associated with his state, he won't be happy with the media attention his decision has sparked.

Scott, a Republican, banned the use of those terms in state communications and publications shortly after he took office in 2011, according to a Miami Herald story Sunday by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.

Though it was not a written rule, "we were told not to use the terms 'climate change,' 'global warming' or 'sustainability,' " Christopher Byrd, a former attorney with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) Office of General Counsel told the investigative reporting center. "That message was communicated to me and my colleagues by our superiors," said Boyd, who held that post from 2008 to 2013.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2015/03/09/florida-governor-climate-change-global-warming/24660287/

[Adrahil]

17. The right way to answer this question....

"We cannot attribute any individual weather event to climate change. However, we can contribute patterns of weather to climate change, when those patterns conform to predictions of associated climate change consequences. "

[Flaleftist]

18. As a resident of Florida and Earth,

I would like to say fuck every last one of those anti-science, climate change denying scumbags. The time is now. The time to take this seriously was a long time ago.

[malaise]

19. The same scumbags don't want gun laws discussed after mass shootings

Fuck them every which way!