Conservatives shrug off climate change link to storm

Top official says the last decade has been a period of ‘low hurricane activity’

Conservative groups with close links to the Trump administration have sought to ridicule the link between climate change and events such as tropical storm Harvey, amid warnings from scientists that storms are being exacerbated by warming temperatures.

Harvey, which smashed into the Texas coast on Friday, rapidly developed into a Category 4 hurricane and has drenched parts of Houston with around 127cm of rain in less than a week, more than the city typically receives in a year.

So much rain fell that the National Weather Service had to add new colours to its maps.

‘Improve infrastructure’

Some scientists have pointed to the tropical storm as further evidence of the dangers of climate change, with Penn State University professor of meteorology Michael Mann stating that warming temperatures “worsened the impact” of the storm, heightening the risk to life and property.

Conservative groups, however, have mobilised to downplay or mock any association between the storm and climate change.

Myron Ebell, who headed the Environmental Protection Agency’s transition team when Donald Trump became president, said the last decade has been a “period of low hurricane activity” and pointed out that previous hurricanes occurred when emissions were lower.

“Instead of wasting colossal sums of money on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, much smaller amounts should be spent on improving the infrastructure that protects the Gulf and Atlantic costs,” said Ebell, who is director of environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank that has received donations from fossil fuel companies such as Exxon Mobil.

Thomas Pyle, who led Trump’s transition team for the department of energy, said: “It is unfortunate, but not surprising, that the left is exploiting Hurricane Harvey to try and advance their political agenda, but it won’t work.

“When everything is a problem related to climate change, the solutions no longer become attainable. That is their fundamental problem.”

Pyle is president of the Institute of Energy Research, which was founded in Houston but is now based in Washington DC.

The non-profit organisation has consistently questioned the science of climate change and has close ties to the Koch family.

While the number of hurricanes may actually fall, scientists warn the remaining events will likely be stronger.

A warmer atmosphere holds more evaporated water, which can fuel precipitation — climate scientist Kevin E. Trenberth said as much as 30 per cent of Harvey’s rainfall could be attributed to global warming.