Please stop arguing about climate change, at least until the hurricanes are over

There is absolutely nothing funny about hurricanes Harvey or Irma. What is sad is that politicians and special interests are already using both hurricanes to support their ideological agendas and to criticize their opponents.

I was surprised, but shouldn't have been, that climate change deniers are already spouting statistics to prove these hurricanes are not related to climate change. We get it: some of you believe Jesus is literally returning to earth soon, so why worry bout pollution, carbon emissions, or global warming? Others worry that climate change is merely part of a globalist conspiracy to weaken the U.S. economy. We aren't asking you to do anything about it, we are asking you to let the rest of us do something about it. You know, just in case by some outlandish twist of fate or history Jesus doesn't actually come back right away and climate change is not just a made up part of a global conspiracy. Just humor us. Let us have our fantasy. It gives us unbelievers something to do so we won't have as much time to subvert your children with all this crazy talk of science.

Those trying to deal with the reality of climate change are just as bad, trumpeting the claims that the hurricanes were made worse by climate change. We get it. However, by using every unusual weather occurrence to sound the climate change alarm, in the eyes of deniers you are making the argument dependent about anecdotal evidence, playing right into their hands. Whether these hurricanes are related to climate change or not does not counteract the large body of peer-reviewed, scientific evidence that establishes the fact of climate change and the link to human activity.

So, can we all give it a rest until the storms have passed and we have made some progress on addressing the people suffering from the intense devastation caused by these storms? Can we make sure people are safe first?

Yes, it is sad that while the rest of the world proceeds to address climate change based on the science, the United States is still bogged down in debate based on political and religious ideology. Still, there is a time and place, even for something so potentially catastrophic as climate change.