Re: “,” Sept. 1 letters to the editor.
Writers to the Open Forum about Hurricane Harvey seem to be making fact-free statements.
One letter-writer claimed that renewable energy is disaster-resilient. He needs to understand that solar panels and windmills will not survive a category 4 hurricane’s 131 mph-plus winds. A wind farm near Corpus Christi survived Hurricane Harvey, but winds maxed at 90 mph.
Another letter-writer says that “Harvey in Houston is global warming.” The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the University of Colorado Boulder’s Roger Pielke Jr. have stated that climate change is not increasing storm severity or floods.
NOAA data clearly shows the U.S. has not been hit by a category 3 or stronger hurricane since 2005. The reasons for the extensive damage are more from people building in danger areas, construction with wood rather than reinforced concrete (as in the Caribbean), and destroying wetlands that can absorb water (as in Houston).
Dzé.ó, Centennial
The writer is a lecturer at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
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