Pope Calls Out Climate Deniers In Wake Of Hurricanes
By Marianne Lavelle for Inside Climate News - With the lives of Texans and Floridians upended by back-to-back superstorms, one thing hasn't been shaken: climate change denial. Hurricane Harvey, which broke the continental U.S. rainfall record with its deluge of southeast Texas, and Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded, epitomize the consensus science warnings of heightened risks in a warming world. The last peer-reviewed National Climate Assessment, in 2014, highlighted extreme precipitation and the increasing intensity of Atlantic hurricanes as looming perils for the United States. In the wake of the storms, Pope Francis and other leaders urged officials who deny the reality of climate change to open their eyes. "You can see the effects of climate change with your own eyes, and scientists tell us clearly the way forward," Pope Francis said Monday, stressing that leaders have a "moral responsiblity" to act. But "when you don't want to see, you don't see," he said. "History will judge those decisions." Miami's Republican mayor also called on President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to acknowledge the role of climate change, saying "If this isn't climate change, I don't know what is.