Catastrophes are reminders of need for firm action on climate change

THE seeming confluence of three powerful hurricanes in the Americas - Harvey which battered Houston, Irma and Jose in Florida and the Caribbbean islands - has not surprisingly raised renewed concern over the pace of global warming.

While the science behind the causal link between climate change and powerful hurricanes may be debatable - in the US, the debate has taken on political overtones - the consensus appears to be that global warming does exacerbate the severity of storms and the subsequent flooding. To be sure, the US and the Caribbean aren't the only areas to be afflicted by extreme weather. Asia is painfully familia…