Climate Synopsis: Hurricane Harvey, hardship withdrawals & cries of the poor.

The weekly news summary of climate science, policy and solutions.

Fueled by the waters of an ever warmer Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Harvey drowned the City of Houston. While hurricanes are natural events, scientists have explained how climate change amplified the intensity of the storm and contributed to its unprecedented rainfall, a point summarized in National Geographic, the Columbia Journalism Review, Washington Post and San Antonio Express News. The Magnolia City paid the price for climate policy ignorance, said the Washington Post."How many more years will we dump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere with impunity?" asks Mark Reynolds from the Citizens Climate Lobby.

Right now, the people of Texas need help and prayers. Their journey to recovery has just begun. But along the way, our nation needs to contribute not just funds, but also thoughtful policy leadership. The Christian Science Monitor points out the reality that the old assumptions of flood management no longer hold. Coastal real estate values may decline, and the Nation reminds us that Houston's developers beat the anti-growth groups, yet lost the battle against Mother Nature. So, as the Washington Post and New York Times report, Congress will need to tackle the debt ceiling, disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey, recovery of the energy industry, and the entire National Flood Insurance Program.

Passing new policies demands difficult conversations about climate change. Salon declared Harvey a test of denialism, and many sources, including Rolling Stone and Washington Post suggested that this might mark a turning point in the political debate over climate change. The San Antonio Express News points out that Texas Governor Greg Abbott is in a unique position to turn GOP orthodoxy on climate. But a USA Today newsletter says not even disaster can bridge the partisan divide. Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President, proved that point when she responded to Chris Cuomo's question about how climate affected Hurricane Harvey:

“Chris, we’re trying to help the people whose lives are literally underwater, and you want to have a conversation about climate change,” Conway said in the CNN interview. “You’re gonna play climatologist tonight?”

Civility in the climate change dialogue may be a long way off. In fact, the Trump Administration seems determined not to have any dialogue at all. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's overhaul of the agency includes elimination of the Special Envoy for climate, noted the New York Times. Reuters reported on the Environmental Protection Agency decision to end its sponsorship of the Climate Leadership Awards. To EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, climate change denial is mission critical, says The Nation.

In the international community, a very different discussion of climate change continues. Various news stories related to Egypt, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Scotland and Switzerland all emphasized the global effects of climate change and sea level rise, national plans to adapt, and the need of humanity to do more.

The global business community is speaking up, too. Apple's Tim Cook, in an interview with the New York Times, emphasized the moral responsibilities of the corporate world in this era of gridlock. The community of architects has been highly critical of President Trump's Executive Order repealing infrastructure safety standards, as covered in Fast Company:

“Climate change is here, no matter what any administration does to hide the facts,” said Seattle-based architect Margaret Montgomery. “To blindly act as if nothing is happening sets us up for facilities that fail, people that are hurt, and communities burdened with tremendous additional costs that could have been avoided.”

In light of Harvey, President Trump may reconsider his decision to repeal the Obama era flood rules, says the Washington Post. But ultimately, it may be up to the combination of the fortunate professionals and the unfortunate victims to force change. The economic consequences of climate change become more clear with every excess raindrop. Hurricane Harvey will be a $30 billion catastrophe, reports the St. Louis Dispatch, with less than one third of the losses insured. People are suffering, and their economic future has been stolen from them. Indeed, the IRS already relaxed the rules allowing people to take hardship withdrawals from their retirement accounts.

The next generation fears that things will get even worse for them. In a World Economic Forum survey answered by 31,000 millenials below aged 18 to 35, from 186 nations, three themes emerged. The younger generation feels ignored, views the leadership as corrupt, and ranks climate change and environmental destruction as the top issue facing the planet -- outranking war. The Independent reports that Ende Gel?nde, a grass-roots alliance for climate justice, led a multi-day effort of civil disobedience by thousands of youths. And Pope Francis showed some sympathy for their cause -- though not necessarily their methods -- and the Associated Press quoted him as urging new environmental policy:

“We also appeal to those who have influential roles to listen to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor, who suffer the most from ecological imbalance.”

In a paper published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Professor Ted Parson from the UCLA Emmet Center on Climate Change Climate concluded that policymakers and assessments must get serious about climate engineering:

“Although developing renewable energy and cutting emissions are essential—and need to be done with much greater intensity—it is becoming increasingly clear that that path does not adequately limit climate risks,” Parson said.

Evidence of those climate risks and consequences continues to accumulate. Democracy Now calculated that more than 1200 people have died in the past month, in Bangladesh, Nepal, and India, due to extreme monsoon flooding events. The Japan Times reports that planetary winds are shifting, and Australia had the hottest winter ever. Food shortages could force humanity to embrace genetic engineering, says Salon. Science Magazine and Current Biology explained how just 1 degree of ocean warming produced massive impacts to the Antarctic ecosystems. Species will go extinct, and forests will transform, and the journals PLOS One and PNAS described the future of the American Pika and the risks of climate induced forest mortality.

Humanity can adapt. Abundant science exists to inform intelligent climate policy. But time marches on, and the next big climate risk just be may swirling in the Atlantic Ocean.

Climate Monitor Media, Inc. is grateful to the many journalists and publications focused on the climate crisis. For more information about climate change and sea level rise, visit our video broadcasts on Roku, Amazon Fire, and online at climatemonitor.tv

Please visit these additional articles: Gothamist (NYC is vulnerable), MPR (Tesla and the future of cars), Sierra (college republicans talking climate), Texas Tribune (a series of articles, some more than 2 years ago, predicting Houston's vulnerability to a hurricane), and the Washington Post (how farmers convinced scientists to take climate change seriously)