The economics of denial

Why high-carbon states don't believe in climate change

Flooded homes in Houston after Hurricane Harvey.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

This is the editor’s letter in the current issue of The Week magazine.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it." Upton Sinclair said this nearly a century ago, but it continues to explain much, including many Americans' adamant refusal to accept the reality of climate change. In the past three weeks, two monstrous hurricanes of historic intensity devastated large swathes of Texas, Florida, and the Caribbean. Climate change didn't cause Harvey and Irma, but climatologists suspect a warming planet made these killer hurricanes more destructive. (Total damage: upwards of $200 billion.) It's simple physics: Hurricanes draw their energy from warm ocean waters, and the Gulf, Caribbean, and southern Atlantic are significantly warmer right now than their historic norms. Warmer air also can carry more moisture. Harvey dumped more rain on Houston — about 50 inches — than any storm in U.S. history. Irma howled at 180 mph for 37 hours, a record, and was the second Category 4 storm to hit the U.S. in three weeks. Coincidence?

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
William Falk

William Falk is editor-in-chief of The Week, and has held that role since the magazine's first issue in 2001. He has previously been a reporter, columnist, and editor at the Gannett Westchester Newspapers and at Newsday, where he was part of two reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes.