About a month back, I wrote about the โStrange Case of Ralph Hall,โ a leading Republican whose Texas district was suffering through severe droughtโa condition expected to worsen, due to climate change, in the futureโbut who challenges mainstream climate science. As I put it then:
So here is the strange summation: Ralph Hall represents a state and district suffering from (and highly vulnerable to) drought; global warming is expected to worsen drought risks for Texas and Hallโs district; Hall questions the science of global warming; Hall leads his party in an effort to block funding for a climate service that would help his district, and many other regions, assess their vulnerability and prepare for a changing climate.
I bring this up again now because, as Nick Sundt points out at the WWF climate blog, it isnโt just Hallโor, just his district.
March 2011 was Texasโs driest month on record; 98 % of the state is currently in drought conditions; the stage is set for devastating wildfiresexpected to persist or intensify.But drought isnโt the only thing thatโs growing more starkโso is the contrast between these weather and climate conditions that their state faces on the one hand, and the behavior of Texasโs elected representatives on the other. As Sundt reports:
On Thursday 7 April 2011, all but one of the Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas voted for H.R. 910 to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases. One Texas Republican (Rep. Michael Burgess) abstained and one Texas Democrat (Rep. Henry Cuellar) also supported the measure. The measure passed the House (255 Ayes, 172 Nays), with no Republicans voting against it. They were joined by 19 Democrats.
Just juxtapose this fact with the drought map of Texas, pictured with this postโand the fact that Texasโs state climatologist has warned that โit is likely that drought frequency and severity will increase in Texasโ due to climate change, and it would appear that youโve got a real โWhatโs The Matter with Texasโ story on your hands.
Senator James Inhofeโs home state of Oklahoma isnโt much better, by the way. Here is its drought map.
