Texas' over-the-top, economically devastating, record-breaking drought is likely to turn into a grinding, multi-year drought, reports Kate Galbraith in the Texas Tribune. That could put it on track to compete with the state's worst-ever dry spell in the 1950s, which in turn can barely compete with the prehistoric mega-droughts Texas used to experience.
In other words, Texas is a dry state with a delicate climate, and climate change is only going to make things worse.
"We can't say with certainty whether this particular drought is in and of itself a product of climate change," said David Brown, a regional official with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. However, he added, these kinds of droughts will have impacts that are "even more extreme" in the future, given a warming and drying regional climate.
Which makes it earth-shatteringly ironic that Texas governor and GOP presidential candidate frontrunner Rick Perry doesn't believe in climate change. As a result, he’s not just unprepared to deal with what climate disasters will do to the state he’s inexplicably in charge of — he’s actually bent on destroying the U.S. government's capacity to cope with the devastation.
Basically, Perry is the Neville Chamberlain of the 21st century. In the face of probably the worst climate catastrophe Texans can remember, in an age in which even the U.S. military recognizes climate change as the greatest single driver of new threats to national security, Perry's policy on the matter is complete surrender. Well, surrender and prayer.
Not really sure how that jibes with his supposedly take-no-prisoners political style, but whatever — everyone's a punk on some issue.
