"Global Warming" Is Cause Of Texas Drought

It's no big secret that Texas suffered it's worst drought in more than a hundred years in 2011. It was so severe that not only were wildfires rampant across the state, but the state's agricultural industry lost at least $7.62 billion in damages to farming and ranching operations. That's a huge loss, and you can bet it will be felt by consumers across the country when they go to the grocery store. Unfortunately, the Texas winter was also a dry one and rainfall levels are already down significantly from normal for 2012 -- a sign that the drought is probably not over.

Some may think that Texas is just beginning to reap what it has sown. It is an established fact that Texas is a much bigger polluter than any other state in the nation. In fact, if Texas was still a country it would be the seventh biggest polluting country in the world. And Texas leads the nation not only in the poisonous pollutants it is dumping into the nation's air, but it also leads in the amount of greenhouse gases it produces (which over 95% of the world's scientists say is the primary cause of global climate change).

But the Republicans who lead the government in Texas (holding all statewide elected offices, huge majorities in both houses of the legislature, and most appointed positions on the state's boards and commissions) are corporate-owned, and would do nothing that might result in corporations having to clean up their act and stop polluting. They deny that their malfeasance has contributed to "global warming". To them, the drought was just bad luck and if we pray hard enough it will end.

But while the state's political leaders are "global warming" deniers, the state's scientists are not. They know that humans (and especially energy producers) have at the very least significantly added to the problem of global climate change, and are probably the main cause of it. Listen to what some of these Texas scientists have to say:

John Nielson-Gammon, Texas State Climatologist
"Warmer temperatures lead to greater water demand, faster evaporation, and greater drying-out of potential fuels for fire. Thus, the impacts of the drought were enhanced by global warming, much of which has been caused by man."

James Hanson, NASA climatologist
Texas drought was “a consequence of global warming because their likelihood was negligible prior to the recent rapid global warming.”

Andrew Dessler, Texas A&M climate scientist
“There is absolutely no way you can conclude that climate change is not playing a role here. I’m quite surprised that anyone would even suggest that.”

Katherine Hayhoe, Texas climatologist
“Our natural variability is now occurring on top of, and interacting with, background conditions that have already been altered by long-term climate change.”

Dr. Jeff Masters, Weather Underground
“It is highly unlikely the warmth of the current ‘Summer in March’ heat wave could have occurred unless the climate was warming."