Only Democrats Fighting to Save the Planet

While it has rained a bit and even cooled off some in the last couple of weeks much of Texas and the country still suffers severe drought conditions that have impacted agriculture. According to experts at Texas Tech University the High Plains area around Lubbock and Amarillo, the most productive of the state’s nine cotton-growing regions, will lose $2.1 billion of this year’s cotton harvest. Farmers in the Rio Grande valley will also have a much less profitable crop of vegetables as they’ve been unable to plant this year due to the drought.

You’ve probably seen news reports of various surprises found in rivers and lakes where the low water levels. Five bodies have been found in Lake Mead including one in a barrel that appears to be a mob-related murder victim. In Europe the Danube river water level has fallen to one of its lowest levels in almost a century as a result of the drought, exposing the remains of more than 20 German warships sunk during World War II near Serbia’s river port town of Prahovo. The sunken ships are now causing problems for ships navigating the river. In Spain, a prehistoric stone circle dubbed the “Spanish Stonehenge” has re-emerged; it is usually covered by waters in a man-made reservoir created in the 1960's which have fallen due to the worst drought in decades.

These world-wide droughts and outrageous temperatures are becoming both more frequent and more intense. Only by reducing the production of greenhouse gases by a large fraction by 2030 will we stand a chance of preventing starvation, disease, war, and migration all over this planet. If you think there is a crisis at our southern border now, wait until the drought in Central America takes hold.

Not a single sitting Republican in the United States Senate or House will acknowledge the threat of human caused climate change let alone take any action to stem that threat. Democrats led by Joe Biden have acted. In addition to the various incentives and projects included in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act the Biden administration has directed all federal agencies to review and take action to reduce carbon emissions, recycle waste, set rules to make green energy projects easier to move forward, and put the funds they administer to work helping farmers, businesses, and individual citizens do the same. Another recently passed bill, the Chips and Science Act, includes funding for clean energy projects and battery production in addition to semi-conductors, nanotechnology, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence.

Joe Biden and the Democrats have made big strides toward reducing production of the greenhouse gases that are raising global temperatures but there is much more to do and not much time to do it. The only way that we’ll continue to see progress on this issue is if Democrats continue to control the House and Senate in addition to the presidency. Since Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have not only failed to take action in Texas they’ve actively worked against protecting our environment we can look forward to more of the same here if they aren’t beaten in the November election. Fossil fuel interests all over Texas are providing massive funding for Republicans and argue that they’re producing jobs while hiding the fact that green energy projects actually employ more people in higher wage, safer jobs than they do.

If you want to have a livable climate here in Texas for your children and grand-children there is no more important action you can take than voting for every Democrat on the November ballot.

 

2021 Democratic Accomplishments

As this is the last column of 2021 I thought it important to review some of the things that Democrats led by President Joe Biden have accomplished this year. Democrats worked hard to overcome the obstruction of Republicans like our senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. While they haven’t done everything I think they could or should have, I firmly believe that the country is better off for their efforts. Many of our families, friends, and neighbors have benefited from the legislation and policies pushed by the Biden administration with the support of Texas Democrats like our congressman, Vicente González.

To me the most important act Biden took upon his inauguration was to rejoin the Paris climate accord which former President Donald Trump had left. His action put the U.S. back in line with the majority of the world's nations and also helped place the Biden administration at the center of efforts to tackle global climate change. While Biden has repeatedly stressed the need to curb climate change by transitioning to clean energy, the administration's approach has often disappointed me. The U.S. not signing the pledge to end the use of coal power announced at COP26 conference is one of those disappointments. On the positive side, last month the president unveiled a 100 country pledge to cut emissions of the greenhouse gas methane by at least 30 percent by 2030 and joined another agreement to end and reverse deforestation. This month the Biden administration ordered U.S. government agencies to stop financing carbon-intensive fossil fuel projects abroad.

Biden, an opponent of the federal death penalty, has reinstated a 17-year pause on federal executions on federal executions that former President Trump ended allowing 13 people were put to death between July, 2020 and January, 2021. It’s important to remember that according to a study published in “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” at least 4% of people on death penalty/death row were and are likely innocent. Biden has pledged "to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level, and incentivize states to follow."

President Biden supported by the 50 Democratic senators has seen 40 federal judges confirmed so far more than any president in their first term since Ronald Reagan in 1981, and twice as many as Trump appointed during his first year. Now he just needs to address the 6-3 conservative dominated Supreme Court.

Many Americans are pessimistic about the U.S. economy given inflation at a 40-year high, yet it’s important to remember that Biden's first year in office has seen significant improvements in job and wage growth. The national unemployment rate fell from 6.3% in January to just 4.2% in November, the lowest since March 2020 and jobless claims fell to their lowest levels since 1969 in early December.

Yes, inflation has increased but more importantly wages and salaries paid by private businesses rose more, outpacing inflation by 2.4% from January to October and disposable income grew 3%. The American Rescue Plan, passed on a near party line vote and the historic economy recovery, combined to cut child poverty in half.

Next week I’ll cover what we have to look forward to in 2022 and what Republicans are doing to prevent the climate and economic recovery we so desperately need through voter suppression and gerrymandering.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 29, 2021

Cong. González on the Wrong Side

In just three weeks into President Joe Biden’s term our congressman, Vicente González, has already found cause to vocally disagree with him and González is wrong. President Biden has issued an executive order to pause on leasing federal lands for oil and gas extraction while the federal government reviews the process and contracts. González and three other Texas Democrats, Henry Cuellar of Laredo, Lizzie Pannill Fletcher of Houston, and Marc Veasey of Fort Worth wrote a letter demanding the order be rescinded.

The federal government charges a 12.5% royalty on oil and gas produced on federal lands which is about half of what the state of Texas and other states charge on state owned lands or what private landowners typically get on their leases. That 12.5% leaves little to nothing for the federal treasury once the cost of cleanup and damage to roads is covered. Earning a competitive royalty rate alone is a good reason for the federal government to review oil and gas leasing on its lands as they’re currently leaving a lot of money on the table and enriching the already wealthy shareholders while leaving the rest of us to clean up the mess. It’s also important to know that most of the federal land currently leased isn’t in production so pausing further leasing won’t stop new drilling even a little bit.

Less than 2% of Texas is owned by the federal government and of that about three quarters is held by the Department of Defense or the National Park Services. There is no federal land not held by the Dept. of Defense or National Park Service that I could find in Congressional District 15 which Cong. González represents so it’s not like local jobs are at stake. In point of fact his constituents who own mineral rights in the Eagle Ford Shale in a few counties in the district should actually benefit from the pause in federal leases by their lands and the oil and gas produced thereon becoming more valuable; especially if the federal government raises the royalty percentage to the market rate.

The real reason that Pres. Biden has but a hold on leasing federal land for oil and gas development is that he understands that global climate change is an existential threat to our way of life and possibly our species. The world has less than 30 years to get carbon emissions under control before the climate is irrevocably wrecked. If we don’t collectively get our act together and stop spewing CO2 and methane into the atmosphere faster than trees and plants can absorb the CO2 our children and grandchildren will find that much of the world will be uninhabitable by the end of the century. There will be drought, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s. The drought will cause crop failure and famine world-wide leading to mass migration and war over resources.

All four Texas Democrats who signed onto the demand to rescind the pause in leasing have two things in common: districts with substantial oil and gas businesses and the number one industry making campaign donations to them was oil and gas. It seems pretty clear who Cong. González is listening to and it isn’t his constituents since Pres. Biden’s climate change initiatives have been well received by the general public.

It is a national security imperative that we avoid a climate change caused disaster and our congressman is too worried about appeasing a handful of rich campaign donors. Call his Washington D.C. office at 202-225-2531 and let him know what you think.

 Published in the Seguin Gazette - February 3, 2021

West Texas Renewable Projects Offer Hope

A couple of weeks ago I drove to Santa Fe, NM to visit a client and as I passed the area near Big Spring, TX I saw three very large clusters of windmills. I didn’t try to count them as that wouldn’t have been safe to do at 75 mph but I could see that there very many. Now two weeks later I’m reminded of those windmills again as I see news reports of the massive hurricane that destroyed Grand Bahama Island and threatens much of the east coast of the United States. I’m reminded because there is little question that hurricane Dorian is as powerful and slow moving as it is because global climate change has led to warmer air and seas which are the fuel for hurricanes.

Wind has generated 22% of the Texas’ electrical needs this year slightly more than the provided 21% provided by coal according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Just sixteen years ago, in 2003, wind made up less than 1% of the state's power, and coal satisfied 40% of electrical needs, according to ERCOT documents.

In 2017 utility scale solar generation is Texas equaled what wind generated back in 2003. Utility scale means a project big enough for a utility to buy from. By the end of this year it will be double that and indications are it will double again within the next year or two. Distributed solar generation, meaning primarily rooftop installations, provides about 25% as much as utility scale facilities at this time.

Projections indicate that Texas will become the second most prolific generator electricity from solar by 2021, as more solar farms are built in West Texas near existing wind farms. Investments in transmission lines to accommodate wind generators making building solar farms nearby very cost efficient because solar and wind energy production mostly occur at different times a day allowing them to share those transmission lines.

Despite the tariffs on Chinese solar panels imposed by the Trump administration, the price of solar power continues to drop so that every year electricity from solar energy gets a little cheaper while coal and natural gas costs are basically the same as the prior year and nuclear just keeps getting more expensive. It's often more cost effective to build a new solar plant than it is to keep running an existing coal power plant or gas plant.

Solar alone employs around 330,000 people in the United States while wind employs about 110,000. Coal mining and generation employs about 140,000. Taken together wind and solar energy jobs nearly triple the number of coal related jobs in the electricity sector.
Seeing that more than two thirds of Grand Bahama Island are now underwater should make anyone who believes climate change is not a big deal or a long way off rethink that position. The growth of renewable energy generation in Texas makes clear that what needs to be done to avoid the worst of the damage global climate change can cause it just takes the will to do it. We as voters must demand that our elected officials take this problem seriously and adjust the incentives and tax breaks offered to the energy industry in Texas and the nation to encourage speeding up the build out of renewable energy projects for the sake of our future and that of future generations.

To paraphrase Wendell Berry: We don't inherit the climate from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - September 6, 2019

Costs of Climate Change

Some of my friends organized a booth at the Earth Day event last weekend. It was designed to explain the need for action to address global climate change and the Green New Deal as a method of doing so. I helped man the booth and had the opportunity to discuss some of the issues with a variety of folks who stopped by. Most of those I spoke with wanted to know more about the issues. One lady in particular struck me as she was unconcerned about the impact of climate change as long as she could turn on her television when she wanted to she felt taking action was too costly.

Climate change is estimated to have cost the nation an average of $24 billion per year over the last decade and will likely rise to $35 billion per year by 2050. The reality is that it’s too costly not to take action.

Looking just at the impact within U.S. borders, current research estimates the cost of carbon emissions is nearly $48 per ton. An average American is responsible for 15.5 tons of carbon emissions per year causing a cost of $744 per year. The same study estimates India's localized social cost of carbon at around $86 per ton, this is because while they emit far less carbon that many other nations due to their geography they suffer some of the worst effects of climate change. Saudi Arabia’s localized social cost of carbon is $47, and China, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates are $24 per ton. Several other countries face damages above $20 per ton. The global cost when the economic impact on all nations is added up is around $417 per ton. The study’s authors believe those to be underestimates. The researchers used an empirical data that captures all market impacts of climate change that could already be seen affecting the economy by 2014. That data doesn't include potential catastrophic events, short-term costs of adaptation, biodiversity loss, or the longer-term impacts of sea level rise and ocean acidification such as that which is killing the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and causing ocean fisheries to vanish.

Two of the greatest drivers to those costs are health issues, especially premature deaths, and coastal property damages and land loss. We already see barrier islands here on the Texas Gulf Coast being eroded by increasingly powerful storms and hurricanes, add to that rising sea levels and our coastline is going change significantly over the next century.

The effects of higher greenhouse gas emissions levels on global climate become most evident around 2050, when temperature, precipitation, and sea level rise projections begin to rapidly diverge from 20th century norms. With substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the increase in global annual average temperature compared to the 1800’s could be limited to less than 3.6°F (2°C). Without significant greenhouse gas mitigation, the increase in global annual average temperature could reach 9°F or more by the end of this century. Certain aspects of Earth’s climate system take longer to respond to changes in greenhouse gas concentrations, such as global sea level, so some degree of long-term change will be locked in for centuries to come regardless of future reductions in emissions. Early greenhouse gas emissions reductions can mitigate climate impacts in the nearer term, such as reducing the loss of arctic sea ice and the effects on species that use it. In the longer term reductions can mitigate impacts by avoiding critical thresholds, such as Antarctic ice sheet collapse and the resulting consequences for global sea level and coastal homes and businesses.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - May 3, 2019

Climate Change Topics in the News

Global climate change is back in the news due to new science, political maneuvering, corporate denialism for profit, and technological progress. Unfortunately most of the news is bad and yet there is still some hope for our children and grand-children. It remains to be seen whether our latest generation of voters will show up at the polls and call on legislators demanding action or will the efforts of fossil fuel company political donations win the day thus sending the environment into an unrecoverable tailspin all to earn a short term profit.

New research the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that based on the latest available science the world has about 11 years left to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions like CO2 and methane in order to keep global warming to a livable 2 degrees Celsius or 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Other research released even more recently shows that cloud cover is reduced in a warming world and acts as a feedback mechanism that increases the amount of solar energy reaching the planet causing further heating. This is similar in effect to warming air causing the northern hemisphere’s permafrost to melt thereby releasing methane stored in the soil which then causes further planetary warming.

On the political side Trump has announced an ad-hoc panel to study whether or not global climate change is a national security risk, something which the Defense Department has already determined to be a big concern. Trump had appointed a prominent climate change denier named William Happer to head the panel and the reason it is ad-hoc is that disclosure and transparency laws are looser so they can avoid public scrutiny of their work. While on the side of the people young political star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Sunrise Movement are working on building support for the Green New Deal which is intended to address the timetable set out by the IPCC by reducing carbon emissions drastically with a multi-pronged approach of increased generation of renewable energy and decreased usage of energy via efficiency.

Corporate political donations from fossil fuel companies continue to drive many political leaders to deny the science that global climate change is mostly drive by the actions of man, in particular CO2 and methane emissions along with deforestation. Sadly this isn’t even a partisan issue though there are more deniers on the Republican side, too many Democrats are complicit as well. Just the other day California senator Dianne Feinstein told a group of young people she wouldn’t support the Green New Deal because she knows better. Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest fossil fuel company, is currently battling in the courts with some of its own shareholders to prevent them from even proposing to the shareholder’s meeting a set of goals to meet to reduce the company’s exposure to risks from global climate change.

New developments in battery technology continue to reduce the price of batteries and now utilities are beginning to buy them in large quantities for use in storing power to meet peak demand. In order to meet the sudden and relatively brief demand power companies have to startup additional generators. That means building entire facilities for use just a small fraction of the day so that energy is really expensive. If they can store electricity generated during off peak times they can save big bucks making solar power and storage a practical solution.

The Green New Deal aims to push all this technology forward quickly in order to save our planet for our children and grandchildren. You, your family and your friends can make that happen by calling your legislators.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - March 1, 2019

Time for The Green New Deal

There’s been a lot of news about proposals by young activists and some Democrats in Congress about what they’re calling The Green New Deal. Its purpose is two-fold, saving our environment by quickly converting to the use of clean renewable energy production and resetting the economic disparities broadened by crony capitalism over the last 40 years harking back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s efforts to revitalize the economy so that impoverished Americans could find jobs and care for their families.

We must address our production of greenhouse gases soon because scientists working together from all over the world and involving multiple disciplines have concluded that the earth is on track for 5-7 degrees Fahrenheit of warming, causing sea level rise of several feet and making extreme weather more frequent and dangerous. The next 4 to 12 years are critical if humanity wants to limit that warming to something survivable. Every year we wait to reduce greenhouse gases makes it harder to achieve.

So far, America’s efforts to address the problem have failed like the Obama administration rules to reduce coal use, which have been stalled by lawsuits brought by polluting industries. Donald Trump is rescinding most of those rules and Republicans have generally opposed any substantial action using the truly stupid argument that it is too expensive. That’s like telling a 40 year old with a bad heart that surgery is too expensive you’ll just have to die.

Right now The Green New Deal is a statement of principles, just the goals to be achieved, there are plenty of details to work out which is why it’s important to start work on it now and not wait until 2020 with the hope of a Democrat in the White House. The goals of the 10 year plan will require the effort of World War II and the scientific focus of the Apollo project to land a man on the moon. Some key points are dramatically expanding existing renewable power sources and deploy new production capacity with the goal of meeting 100% of national power demand through renewable sources.

Achieving the goals of The Green New Deal will require upgrading every residential and industrial building for state-of-the-art energy efficiency, comfort and safety. We’ll have to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing, agricultural and other industries. We’ll work eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by repairing and improving roads, highways, bridges, and other infrastructure.

The effort to save our climate will require all hands on deck which makes it a great opportunity to provide all members of our society the opportunity, training and education to be a full and equal participant in the transition, including through a job guarantee program to assure a living wage job to every person who wants one.

Our congressman, Vicente Gonzalez, should be a vocal supporter of The Green New Deal given that his district including Guadalupe County will be among those suffering the most if we don’t address climate change quickly. Unfortunately he hasn’t joined the other 40 Democrats including Joaquin Castro in speaking out in favor of the effort.

There is a way to get him to join the call for The Green New Deal and that involves you, your family, and your friends. If we all take 5 minutes to call his office and let his staff know that climate change and good paying jobs in the green energy industry are important to us he can be convinced to join those other Democrats already working toward The Green New Deal. Call his Washington DC office at 202-225-2531.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - February 8, 2019

Letter from the future

Dateline July 11, 2082

It’s 65 years to the day since the Larsen C ice shelf calved one of the ten largest icebergs ever up to that time. Within the next three years my grandpa told me it was like the break on a pool table in slow motion as the rest of the ice shelf broke up. While none of that changed the sea level as the ice shelf was already floating in the water, it did allow the glaciers that had previously fed the shelf to run free and speed up they did. Thirty years later when grandpa died the Antarctic continent of was only half covered in ice.

Just fifteen years after the calving event, when I was 7 years old, sea levels had already risen one foot. Today with sea levels four feet higher then when my grandparents moved to Texas, Galveston and Port Arthur are depopulated due to constant flooding and the damage done by three category 6 hurricanes over the last 50 years.

McAllen and Corpus Christi have taken a beating from mammoth hurricanes as well. Between higher sea levels causing the coast to move inland, hurricanes, and the collapse of fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico all the little towns that used to be on the coast like Rockport and Aransas Pass are little more than ghost towns.

When I was little I remember being able to spend most of the day during the summer outdoors playing with my friends. Today no one goes outside between 9am and 7pm four months out of the year and yet more than 2,000 Texans die every year due to the 125 degree heat anyway.

The house outside San Antonio where my mom grew up and the one where I was born, along with just about all the others in the sprawl between San Antonio and Austin are abandoned. The desert has encroached half way to Houston and there isn’t enough water to live there anymore given that Nestle now owns nearly all the water rights.

Grandpa said some crazy president back when the ice shelf calved wanted to build a wall to keep Mexicans from crossing the border on foot. I find that hard to imagine because there’s nothing but a thousand miles of desert from Mexico City to nearly Houston. They can’t even get water at the Rio Grande unless there’s been a hurricane recently.

For hundreds of years nations have fought wars over natural resources; at the turn of the century it was oil now, we fight for potable water because it is the most precious resource of all. Some cities started recycling wastewater before I was born, now every city and town does it even if they have access to lakes or wells that have fresh water year round because they sell that water if Nestle doesn’t already own it.

When I was a kid we still had access to fruit and vegetables from all over the world but that’s almost impossible now as few countries can feed their own people. Countries now trade food for other food, not money unless the government is totally corrupt and even ruthless dictators know better than to let too many people starve.

Grandpa was politically involved to the very end. The thing that made him most angry was the climate change deniers. He said the scientists knew the environment was being wrecked and the politicians did nothing to stop it because it would hurt profits. Everyone knows now, but it’s too late.

They say the dome covering the city will officially be complete tomorrow.

Published in the Seguin Gazette July 21, 2017

The Cost of Trump's Fossil Fuel Agenda

2016 was the hottest year on record and as we’re experiencing right now, 2017 is already showing signs of another record setting hot year. Trump and his Republican enablers continue to deny the existence of global climate change. Trump even claims it’s a hoax perpetrated by China of all places. Apparently he hasn’t seen studies proving the Arctic ice cap is shrinking or the massive crack in the Antarctic ice shelf Larsen C that once it breaks loose will make an iceberg the size of the state of Delaware. Republicans in general deny that the carbon dioxide we’ve been spewing into the atmosphere for the last hundred years can affect the global climate but the numbers don’t lie. Our auto and power generation emissions have increased for decades and as the rest of the world’s economies have grown so have their emissions.

Even China, the world’s greatest polluter, recognizes the problem. Earlier this month China’s energy agency vowed to spend more than $360 billion on solar and wind and other renewable energy projects by 2020 in order to cut smog levels and carbon emissions while creating 13 million jobs in the process. While Republicans roll back efforts to build a clean energy economy in the United States, an industry that could employ ten times as many people as coal and gas generation China is taking advantage of the situation to be seen as a clean energy leader in the Third World. Chinese leaders recognize the opportunity to exert soft power and bring more countries into their sphere of influence.

Instead of moving forward on clean energy Trump promises to bring back coal mining jobs which is a fools errand if only on the grounds that coal is too expensive compared to the alternatives now available in form of natural gas. Wind and solar energy projects are now often competitive on cost with even natural gas so why even bother with coal? Of course one way to make it cheaper is to eliminate environmental rules regarding the waste from coal mines and that’s just what he’s done by rescinding the Stream Protection Rule which would have made it tougher to dump mining waste into nearby waterways.

The Republican energy program relies on fossil fuels thus damaging our environment through polluting our air and water with mercury, arsenic and other toxins. Their fossil fuel agenda also costs the economy in terms of the lost opportunity for job creation. The Trump/Republican energy agenda also harms us through our loss of international influence both in the developed and third world. The only beneficiaries of their agenda are the billionaires in the fossil fuel industry who finance their political campaigns.

Upton Sinclair once said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it." I think this clearly explains Republican intransigence but I have to wonder how long Republicans can persist in lying to the American people given that record setting high temperatures are likely to be set again in 2017 and beyond. I suppose if Exxon became a solar or wind energy company Republicans would overnight become firm believers in global climate change and clean energy advocates.

Lamar Smith fulfills Upton Sinclair's quote "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"

Congressman Lamar Smith’s August 9 letter “Funding NASA” makes the spurious claim that climate change research is part of a partisan agenda. Nothing could be further from the truth. Global climate change is the single most important threat to the future of mankind.

97% of climate scientists, not to be confused with the local TV weatherman, say that humans are the cause of most of the coming global climate change and we have the power to mitigate it. If 97 aerospace engineers told you that the airliner you were about to board would likely crash on the next flight and 3 paid by the airline said it wouldn’t; who would you believe?

Most of the scientists claiming that human caused global climate change is a hoax are paid for by the very industries contributing the most to the problem. These are the same people using the same techniques to obfuscate scientific truth who stymied action on leaded gasoline and the connection between tobacco use and lung cancer.

Learn the truth about how industry has poisoned our environment and our political system, read “Merchants of Doubt” by Professor Naomi Oreskes and historian Erik Conway.

LTE on Sen. Inhofe using the bible to pretend that global climate change is a hoax

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) in a recent interview about his new book claimed that the bible says man can’t change the weather and therefore the notion of global climate change is a hoax. Inhofe maintained that only God can change the climate and for us to believe that our actions can alter the seasons is pure “arrogance.” He said: “…The Genesis 8:22 [verse] that I use in there is that ‘as long as the earth remains there will be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night.”

I’m stunned, farmers and ranchers all over Texas have noticed for years that our weather is less predictable and rain doesn’t come at the usual time of year so crops are producing less than they used to. Our oceans are rapidly acidifying and the plant life it used to support is dying off leaving less food for other sea life, so fishing boats are less productive than ever before.

Inhofe continues “The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous.” No climate scientist has ever claimed that we’ll stop having summer and winter. All they’re saying is that we’ll get more violent storms, more and deeper droughts in some areas as well as more and heavier rains in others.

If anyone is arrogant it’s Inhofe and those who cherry pick bible passages to support anti-science positions.