Readers React: How many weather records have to be set before we finally start blaming climate change?

To the editor: The planet is warming. Flooding in Japan is worse because warmer air holds more moisture. That’s a climate-change-related event. (“Climate change is behind the global heat wave. Why won’t the media say it?” July 15)

Hurricane Harvey dumped unprecedented amounts of water on Houston because conditions were ripened by a river in the atmosphere. That’s a climate-change-related event.

Just when residents in Santa Barbara County were finally about to get a good night’s sleep after weeks of evacuation notices from wildfires, the rain came down hard. The resulting mudflows rerouted culverts that had been engineered to divert rainwater around homes. As a result, homes were washed off of their foundations. People died.

With three decades’ worth of weather and climate reporting, I can make the connection. I would like to read about progress on solutions like carbon pricing, carbon capture, advancements in battery technology and subsidies for renewables. I’m probably not alone.

Pam Brennan, Newport Beach

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To the editor: Although I’ve been concerned about climate change for years, I have also been wary of saying any given weather event was caused by it. But as time has gone on and we’ve seen more and more extreme weather events, the pattern has become unmistakable.

As op-ed article writer Leah C. Stokes says: “The climate we knew is no more. We’ve already warmed the planet, whether we deny it or not.” It’s time to start connecting the dots.

David Salahi, Laguna Niguel

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