Recent weather disasters — flooding across Asia and hurricanes hitting the US and Caribbean — have only increased the volume from commentators and politicians who tell us: “This is what climate change looks like.” 

The destruction, they say, provides added reason to double down on the Paris Agreement, the climate pact adopted in December 2015. Those who don’t think this way are haters and wreckers, no different from Donald Trump, who cancelled US involvement in the treaty.

Así es como se ve el cambio climático”, declaró rápidamente CNN sobre el devastador huracán Harvey. Poco después, los medios de comunicación y los políticos decían exactamente lo mismo sobre los huracanes Irma y María.

Es peligroso precipitarse y relacionar los desastres con el cambio climático, porque nos orienta hacia políticas que tendrán poco o ningún efecto en la reducción de la devastación futura.

Al Gore recently had a telling altercation with a journalist. The Spectator’s Ross Clark wanted to ask him about Miami sea-level rises suggested in the new film, “An Inconvenient Sequel.” The reporter started to explain that he had consulted Florida International University sea-level-rise expert Shimon Wdowinski. Gore’s response: “Never heard of him — is he a denier?” Then he asked the journalist, “Are you a denier?”

When Clark responded that he was sure climate change is a problem but didn’t know how big, Gore declared, “You are a denier.”

The concept of trade-offs has become unfashionable. Politicians around the world like to pretend that their choices will bring us nothing but superlative benefits.

Nowhere is this whitewashing more pervasive or accepted than in climate change. There is a prevalent, comforting notion that we can have our cake and eat it too: that cutting carbon need not involve financial sacrifice.

The average American believes the US spends a whopping third of its federal budget on foreign aid. Consequently, a majority of people think that too much is spent on foreign aid. That is one reason US President Donald J. Trump, who has campaigned on putting the needs of Americans first, has proposed deep cuts to foreign aid in his 2018 budget.

"Climate change has been a key issue at the United Nations General Assembly this week. Meetings at the U.N. about the topic have been taking place during a season of calamitous weather events, including a series of devastating hurricanes.

While he believes that world leaders cannot ignore climate change, Bjorn Lomborg, president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, says he is concerned that precious resources are too often squandered on ineffective solutions, and that aid money could be spent on better interventions that do the most social good."

This is what global warming looks like, opinion pieces quickly declared in both Politico and CNN about devastating Hurricane Harvey. A week later, news media around the globe and politicians were saying the exact same thing about Hurricane Irma.

Jumping the gun on linking disasters to climate change is dangerous. It points us toward policies that will have little to no effect at reducing future devastation. 

The science is clear but also nuanced: Climate change will worsen some extreme weather events, and it will improve others.

Haití tiene necesidades profundas casi en todo: los problemas de salud incluyen las tasas más altas de mortalidad infantil, de menores de cinco años y materna en el hemisferio occidental; las carreteras están mal mantenidas; el acceso a la educación es bajo, especialmente para las niñas y los niños de las zonas rurales.

El sistema judicial está tan quebrado que muchos esperan en prisión durante años sin juicio.

In the lottery of life, being born female in a poor country places one at a double disadvantage. Women in poor countries have the highest global incidence of poverty of any demographic group, along with the worst health conditions, the least access to education, and the highest likelihood of being victims of violence.

Mesmo com dezenas de investimentos atractivos por onde escolher, economistas laureados com o Nobel analisaram os dados e descobriram que as medidas para combater a desnutrição estão entre as opções mais poderosas.

A desnutrição recebe menos atenção do que a maioria dos outros grandes desafios mundiais. Ainda assim, é uma área onde um investimento relativamente pequeno pode ter um impacto muito poderoso.