Consider this a warning from Harvey

To the Times: Hurricane Harvey may perhaps be the most overwhelming climate-related catastrophe experienced by modern humanity. The question is why? A media report observed: Such events are consistent with the basic science of climate change: Warmer than normal water temperatures, in places such as the Gulf of Mexico, provide heat energy that fuels the formation and rapid strengthening of tropical storms. Warmer air holds more water vapor, which in turn produces more rainfall. And rising sea levels exacerbate storm surge and inland flooding.

Watch the headlines for the climate skeptics. Skeptics will be citing a long list of tropical storms and epic flooding typical of storms that slammed Texas before the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Any conclusion that climate change did or did not cause Harvey or made the storm worse won’t come until scientists conduct post-storm “attribution” studies.

Expect politicians to call Harvey an “act of God” with little or nothing to do with human-induced climate change. Even if climate change is real, many politicians may posture that a serious effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions through a carbon tax or other means would be too expensive.

However, a federal assessment climate change report calls into question the wisdom of Trump’s climate change policies, which seek to boost U.S. production and consumption of fossil fuels even as the world’s other leading economies promote cleaner sources of energy.

It has been suggested that President Trump could quietly release the special federal report this year and the broader assessment when the final version is due in 2018. This decision would be unaffordable for the environment, the economy, and humanity.

A major media outlet expressed the opinion: With a significant economic price tag atop a torrent of human misery, the question isn’t whether the nation can afford to get serious about global warming. Trump can’t afford not to.

Chilton G. Goebel, Jr., Chads Ford