Climate change is normal

A May 10 letter uses a recent 18-inch rainfall and subsequent flood in Houston, Texas to make the writer’s point on climate change. It also was used to make another attack on those he deems “climate deniers.”

I find it amusing when people use only those figures they know to be true as proof of what they espouse.

Since the writer chose Houston, let’s consider just that location. Did you know it once had a 22.31-inch rainfall? But that was in 1949, probably too early for “warming” since in the 1960s, Newsweek magazine cited climate scientist after climate scientist and projected that we were entering a new Ice Age. Houston also had 19.78 inches in 1929 and 15.33 inches in 1941. But, in all fairness, some of its big storms also have occurred recently. Houston has always had large rainstorms.

I don’t know anyone who truly denies that our climate is changing. It always has and always will. Most of us whom the letter writer wants to label “deniers” just don’t foresee the catastrophic results he does. I envision a world that will adjust and prosper, just as we have always dealt with climate change through the centuries. Land will disappear below water here, and land will appear above water there.

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 5:57 PM with the headline "Climate change is normal."