Are We Making Hurricanes Worse?

Our story on the possible link between global warming and violent hurricanes touched off a stormy debate among Time's readers. Some argued that rising temperatures are simply part of a natural cycle. But environmentalists think that Katrina and Rita have proved that skeptics are all wet

Thank you for raising the issue of global warming as it relates to hurricanes [Oct. 3]. The debate seems to focus on whether we have enough evidence that pollution is causing climate change to justify taking steps to reduce greenhouse gases. That standard is too high when the world is facing what might be catastrophic consequences. Even the possibility that human behavior is changing our climate should compel action. American attitudes toward environmental pollution are like our attitudes toward food: we keep shoving pollutants into the atmosphere with the same abandon that we shove junk food into our mouths, even though we know the results will probably be serious. Why are we not proactive when it comes to the planet? Our negligence could have a fatal impact not only on ourselves, but also on billions of innocents.
Matthew Hutchison
West Hollywood, California, U.S.

Testifying before a U.S. senate sub-committee, Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said, "The increased activity since 1995 is due to natural fluctuations and cycles of hurricane activity" and is "not enhanced substantially by global warming." You should have quoted him in a story about whether carbon dioxide emissions and the greenhouse effect are making hurricanes worse.
John Meyer
Golden, Colorado, U.S.

I commend your choice of global warming as a cover story. The effects of worldwide climate change, fueled by human activity, are becoming ever more apparent. Even if it turns out that warmer temperatures do not strengthen tropical storms, we need only look north to find alarming signs of warming trends. Many studies document melting polar ice caps, thinning permafrost and rising sea and air temperatures in the Arctic, which threaten the livelihood of people native to the region. Like so many helpless Gulf Coast residents, these people will suffer because of a profound denial of responsibility. Climate change is a global problem that needs a global solution.
David G. Wright
Sturbridge, Massachusetts, U.S.

There are solutions that can reduce global-warming pollution and preserve a healthy climate for our kids. We must invest in innovative clean-energy sources — from wind turbines and solar panels to biofuels such as ethanol — and use off-the-shelf technologies to make more fuel-efficient cars. Those technologies will stimulate new markets, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, save consumers money, enhance our national security and reduce global-warming pollution. The time to act is now.
Julie Anderson
Climate Change Campaign Manager
Union of Concerned Scientists
Washington

The U.S. has been hit on two fronts — devastating hurricanes and ballooning prices at the gas pump. What appears to be an incurable addiction to automobiles resulted in scenes of cars frozen in gridlock or moving in endless lines at a snail's pace, as residents of Houston fled Hurricane Rita. This could well be what regular rush-hour traffic will look like a decade from now as we continue to build more cars than mass-transit vehicles and more highways than mass-transit infrastructure. The Bush Administration seems to be in denial about global warming, as it persists in ignoring the Kyoto agreement in favor of Big Business. But warning signals from nature in the form of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita cannot be ignored.
Max Desouza
Toronto

For decades scientists, environmentalists and meteorologists have been saying that human-generated pollution is producing global warming that is altering the weather. Now it appears it might also be causing more of the worst type of hurricane. Only a few skeptics, industrialists and political opportunists remain unconvinced. But the taxpayers are the ones who have to finance ill-advised and heedless policy decisions, and then pay more to clean up after weather-related disasters.
Clarence Madhosingh
London

Labor Pains
"Will Europe Ever Work?," on Europeans' shifting attitudes to labor and unemployment [Oct. 3], suggested that workers can expect to work harder and longer for no additional pay. But what would employees get without extra money? Food at the supermarket? Gas at the pumps? Part of their mortgage? When corporations are in trouble, top management should be held responsible, including highly paid executives. A salary cut would surely not hurt them. It is true that Europeans have the benefit of a social-welfare system, and it is abused by some lazy people. But for generations, workers have been fighting for better lives. We want fathers and mothers to be home at night to have a meal with the family; we want parents to spend time with their children on a long holiday. Nobody is in favor of a 50-hour workweek, only 12 days of vacation a year or American-style soup kitchens for those who cannot cope.
Hans-Günther Tappe
Steinheim, Germany

You noted that European attitudes toward work will have to change in the new global economy. I am European, and I think our attitudes toward work may already have changed. And I doubt that even if all jobs on offer are filled, the unemployment rate will be significantly reduced. From my observations, the job market is shrinking and cannot offer enough positions for workers.
Jean-Pierre Huille
Brunoy, France

Rita: The Second Storm
Hurricanes Rita and Katrina will change how the Federal Government handles disasters [Oct. 3]. Let's hope the Bush Administration does not use this crisis the way it used 9/11 — as an excuse to consolidate even more power in the hands of the right-wing corporate élite. We must reverse the trend of allowing corporations to set our national policy.
Allen L. Wenger
Mountain Home, Idaho, U.S.

George W. Bush's handlers left no photo op unexplored as they sought to convince us that the President was fully engaged in hurricane relief after Rita. Of course, that strategy only underscores that this President is clueless. Bush moved quickly when two things of great importance to him were threatened: the Texas oil infrastructure and his poll ratings.
Brandon Bittner
Royersford, Pennsylvania, U.S.

Building a major city on a low-lying swamp in a hurricane corridor is about as intelligent as building a house of cards on a bowling lane. The only way to absolutely protect New Orleans from a Katrina-like situation ever happening again is never to rebuild. It is wrong to blame the Bush Administration for decades of inaction by many, many administrations. Low taxes are not to blame, and less government is not to blame. A society that promotes dependence on government to always get it out of difficulties has only itself to blame. The problems caused in the wake of the hurricanes could have been avoided if people had taken responsibility for themselves.
Murray Hills
Auckland, New Zealand

For Gradual Reform
I'm not sure Germany's election stalemate proved that the political system is in crisis [Oct. 3]. Did it mean the German people deeply oppose political reform? I don't think so. They are divided, however, about the pace and degree of change. Those who want to proceed slowly were comforted by Gerhard Schröder's campaign speeches and put off by Angela Merkel's. That's why Merkel did not appeal as much to voters who wanted to hear comfortable words.
Philippe Dahbi
Rockenhausen, Germany

Gays Need Not Apply
You reported that pope Benedict XVI may reaffirm a ban on homosexuals entering the seminary [Oct. 3]. The Pope may be intent on a "thorough cleaning up of the priesthood." But given the Roman Catholic Church's history of sexual abuse of children by the clergy, why has it taken so long for anything to be done? Can it be that aberrant behavior and hypocritical attitudes are finally costing the church sizable amounts of money?
Richard Kusnierek
Orange Park, Florida, U.S.

I was upset when I read that the church may revive a ban on even celibate gays in seminaries. What purpose is served by barring a celibate gay male from entering the seminary or the priesthood? The church's witch hunt is an affront to me and many others who see it as a thinly veiled attempt to equate homosexuality with sexual abuse by priests. Homosexuality does not predispose a person to commit a crime against a child. The Catholic Church is trying to divert attention from fundamental institutional problems and from its inept handling and cover-up of sexual abuse by priests in the U.S. Reaffirming a ban on gays entering the priesthood would drive away some of the very few men willing to serve the church and live celibate lives. It is clear that the church is in desperate need of a housecleaning. But it would benefit no one to target gay men who are willing to give up living in an increasingly accepting society to serve in what is becoming an increasingly dysfunctional institution.
Nicole Boehler
Tübingen, Germany

The Refinery Crunch
Matthew Yeomans' essay "refining the Problem" [Sept. 26] argued that building more refineries may alleviate the oil shortage. But we also need to tackle problems on the demand side. Developing countries such as India and China require vast quantities of oil, but they don't have a lot of energy-saving technology and aren't taking concrete steps to promote energy conservation. Our sources of crude oil are not everlasting. Governments must do their best to educate their people about the need to save energy. Citizens must play a part in energy conservation in their daily lives, or oil prices will not come down.
Kenny Tan
Singapore

How to Help the Poor
Joe Klein's Column "Let's Have An Antipoverty Caucus" [Oct. 3] perfectly summarized my thinking about programs for the poor. As a middle-class Republican, not an ultraconservative, I want better things for our country, but I do not want to support someone for life and perpetuate a cycle of poverty and welfare dependence. I am willing to invest in programs that train poor people for employment and allow them to contribute to society by paying taxes like the rest of us. Let's have a Congressional Antipoverty Caucus, as Klein suggests, and base aid on economic need rather than race. I don't want to give handouts. I want to invest in the future of the impoverished.
Larry McLean
Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.

When Lyndon Johnson launched his War on Poverty in 1964, the Texan President aimed to bring support to the underprivileged and help them climb out of poverty. Bush, however, brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "war on poverty"; he has declared war on the poor. And he has done it by letting corporations and the wealthy help themselves to billions from the nation's coffers.
Gene Elder
San Antonio, Texas, U.S.

How can you have a meaningful debate about the strategy of fighting poverty without at least exploring whether the transfer of billions of dollars from taxpayers to the poor has had any positive impact over the past 40 years? I don't think that money will ever be the answer. Nor do I believe that questioning the success of our welfare-entitlement policies makes someone a racist.
Rocco Ferrera
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S.

Iran's New Man
re your interview with Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [Sept. 26]: In discussing the hostage crisis at the U.S. embassy in Tehran more than 25 years ago, he said, "Sometimes, in order to gain your rights, you have to do certain things." That sounds as if he condones any type of behavior. But in answer to a question about al-Zarqawi's call for violence against Shi'ites in Iraq, he said, "Any decision that leads to the killing of innocents is something that we reject." Comparing his answer rejecting the use of violence with the one about the necessity of doing "certain things" makes me wonder what Ahmadinejad truly believes.
Steve Brown
Johannesburg

Thugs by Any Other Name
Your notebook item "The New Bin Laden?" [Sept. 5] said that according to recent European intelligence reports, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, "now rivals Osama bin Laden in influence among Middle Eastern and European jihadists." Such stories exaggerate the importance of al-Qaeda and al-Zarqawi. He is nothing but a low-level hit man. And now the media have enhanced his grandeur, providing more motivation to the harebrained Islamist yokels terrorizing the world! These people thrive on sensational news stories. Will the media please stop glorifying the horrendous activities of these burned-out thugs and stop labeling them "jihadists?"
Brigadier Mateen M. Mohajir (ret.)
Karachi