Letters

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. 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 innocent people.

MATTHEW HUTCHISON

West Hollywood, Calif.

Testifying before a U.S. Senate subcommittee, 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 driven by the Atlantic Ocean itself along with the atmosphere above it and not enhanced substantially by global warming." You should have quoted him in a story that discusses the question of whether carbon dioxide emissions and the greenhouse effect are making hurricanes worse.

JOHN MEYER

Golden, Colo.

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, those 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, Mass.

There are solutions that can reduce global-warming pollution and preserve a healthy climate for our children. 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. These 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

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 elite. We must not allow corporations to set our national policy.

ALLEN L. WENGER

Mountain Home, Idaho

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. 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, Pa.

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 our money used to invest in the future of the impoverished.

LARRY MCLEAN

Colorado Springs, Colo.

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, Fla.

When Lyndon Johnson launched his War on Poverty in 1964, that Texas 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"--it now means 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

A Flood of Money

"How To Spend (Almost) $1 Billion a Day" reported on the Federal Government's massive post-Katrina rebuilding effort [Sept. 26] and stated, "Most of the major Katrina contracts doled out so far have been for temporary housing, and they have gone, by and large, to companies with strong ties to the Bush Administration." Average Americans have rallied to help those who are recovering from the hurricane crisis. I am curious to know what our President, representatives and wealthier citizens have personally contributed. Recovery should not be paid for by cutting funds for health care and other vital federal programs, as some have proposed. While helping the hurricane victims, we still need to maintain spending on research, education, environment, medical care and energy alternatives.

ALISON OZER

Amherst, Mass.

I propose that all federal funding for the war in Iraq be diverted to the hurricane-recovery effort. Then the money needed to pay for the war would come from members of the Bush Administration, Congress, private citizens and the corporations that supported (and in many cases profited from) the Iraq war.

DAVID W. MCCREERY

Salem, Ore.

Animation Forever

Your article on the switch from hand-drawn to computer-generated [CG] animation at Disney [Sept. 26] mentioned me and my colleague Andreas Deja as "respected animators ... [who] resisted making the switch to CG." I won't speak for Andreas, but in my case, that statement just isn't true. First, I'm not a Disney employee, even though I continue to work for the company on numerous projects. They include a test with Roger Rabbit animated in CG to prove we could do a squashy-stretchy character, a stereoscopic CG version of Aladdin's genie and, most recently, CG animation for Disneyland's 50th-anniversary TV spots. Is my first love hand-drawn animation? Absolutely. Am I going to continue animating and directing in hand-drawn whenever possible? You bet. But as for resisting the switch to CG? Puh-leeze.

ERIC GOLDBERG

Glendale, Calif.

Friends in High Places

Your article on President Bush's disturbing habit of placing unqualified individuals in critical government jobs [Oct. 3] again illustrates what has become quite clear: Bush is more concerned with maintaining an insular bubble of yes-men than with running the country. It's too bad thousands of our poorest citizens have had to pay dearly for his cronyism.

ANGELA TEATER

Seattle

What you see in top management positions in government agencies is no different from what you see in the private sector. There, as in government agencies, incompetence rises above capability. Promotion is more about who you know than what you know. After 30 years in the business world, and the past 15 at a management level, I have watched empty suits move up the ladder because of their politics and presentation rather than their productivity and competence. We are losing our edge in the global-business arena because of that, and the nation is suffering.

BILL WILDE

Carol Stream, Ill.

Water Worries

Your report "Western Water Wars," on the plans of the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) to diversify its water resources, contained an unfortunate implication [Sept. 5]. The foundation of Nevada's water law is that the state's water belongs to all its citizens, not just to residents of a particular community. All the SNWA is proposing is to utilize an unused, naturally replenished groundwater supply. The SNWA has also expressed a willingness to go beyond the legal requirements to address the concerns of all stakeholders about having an adequate supply of water and ensure that their communities and lifestyles are protected. Your article did not adequately represent our commitment to be both a good neighbor and a responsible steward of water resources.

PATRICIA MULROY, GENERAL MANAGER

SOUTHERN NEVADA WATER AUTHORITY

Las Vegas

Alienated and Enraged

The portrayal in your story "Generation Jihad" of Muslim youth in Europe and other parts of the Western world made me uneasy [Oct. 3]. You described young Muslims as frustrated by lack of opportunities in Europe and motivated by the idea that the West is waging an assault on Islam. As a Pakistani student studying in the U.S., I would like to point out that the vast majority of Muslim youth in the West are working against ideas of jihadist violence and hatred.

ARSALAN USMANI

San Francisco

History is replete with alienated minorities that successfully assimilated and did not bomb innocent people. The angry Muslims in Europe seem to have forgotten the West's benevolence during humanitarian missions to the Muslim populations in Somalia, Bosnia and Indonesia. The West can no longer pursue appeasement. It must challenge the jihadist philosophy by using its own enduring and sacred values socially, politically and, if threatened, militarily.

SEAN LILLE

Scottsdale, Ariz.

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 to act? Can it be that aberrant behavior is finally costing the church big money?

RICHARD KUSNIEREK

Orange Park, Fla.

What purpose is served by barring a celibate gay male from entering the seminary or the priesthood? Reaffirming a ban on gays from participating as Catholic priests would drive away some of the very few men willing to serve the church and live celibate lives.

NICOLE BOEHLER

Tuebingen, Germany

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 would condone any type of behavior if it achieved political goals. But then, in answer to a question about Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi's call for violence against Shi'ites in Iraq, Ahmadinejad said, "Any decision that leads to the killing of innocents is something that we reject." Comparing Ahmadinejad's answer about rejecting the use of violence to his response rationalizing the necessity of doing "certain things" makes me wonder what Iran's new President truly believes.

STEVE BROWN

Johannesburg