“As a matter of historical fact, the climate changes. Long before fossil fuel was ever discovered and used on a large-scale industrial basis, the earth’s climate changed substantially on numerous occasions. However, many scientists believe that certain human activities impact the climate. Others dispute the extent to which any activity has a particular level of influence on the climate, which is why this matter needs to continue to be investigated. We must be good guardians of our Earth, but we must base our decisions on peer-reviewed scientific inquiry, free from political demagogues using climate change as an excuse to remake the American economy.”
VIEW SOURCE
WHAT CLIMATE CHANGE MEANS FOR TEXAS
- In 2011, more than 1,500 people lost their homes in Texas’s most destructive wildfire. 2012 was the second hottest summer on record. And over the past 10 years, Texas has been impacted by more than 20 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters.
- In 2011, Texas was hit by eight of the nation’s billion-dollar disasters—the most of any state in the country. Of the eight, the three most devastating were drought, heat, and wildfires.
- Texas experienced its hottest summer on record in 2011, with a record-breaking number of days over 100°F. In Texas and Oklahoma, a majority of range and pastures were classified in “very poor” condition for much of the 2011 crop growing season.
- Climate change has increased temperatures across the Great Plains since the 1960s, particularly in the northern states. The hotter, drier conditions are already contributing to water resource stress, particularly in the southern portion of the region. In the coming decades, lack of water will constrain development, stress natural resources, and increase competition for water among communities, agriculture, energy production, and wildlife and natural ecosystems. In 2011, heat and drought contributed to agricultural losses across the Midwest and Great Plains, and the northern Great Plains dealt with significant flooding. Extreme events like floods and droughts are expected to become more common with climate change. Other agricultural impacts of rising temperatures include changes in insect pests and the northward shift of optimal zones for crops. As young adults move out of small, rural communities, the towns are increasingly populated by a vulnerable demographic of very old and very young people, placing them more at risk for health issues than urban communities. Serious health concerns are also associated with severe flooding, which is projected to increase in the future, including a greater incidence of waterborne diseases. Water quantity and quality issues are expected to exacerbate existing economic and social issues for the 65 Native American tribes in the Great Plains, where populations on rural tribal lands have limited capacities to respond to climate change.
