Richard (RJ) Eskow: Texas Tornadoes: Climate Change – and Climate Deniers

April 4th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Here’s a headline we’re tempted to write – or rather, one that we would be tempted to write if we weren’t so nice, or so dedicated to avoiding oversimplification:

“Climate-Change Deniers Struck by Climate Change in Texas Tornado Outbreak.”

This week two seemingly unrelated but very connected events took place: In the first, freak tornadoes struck the Dallas area today with unexpected ferocity, causing many experts to revisit the issue of whether tornadoes should be included in the list of extreme weather caused by climate change.

In the second, the hard-hit area’s Member of Congress bragged about cutting funds for – predicting storms and reducing their impact.

If you think that’s bad – and it is – last year Mitt Romney did the Representative one better: He said it would be “immoral” to spend Federal money to help victims of national disasters like the one that just struck Texas.

Immoral.

A Spell of Bad Weather

Even as presumptive GOP nominee Romney was talking like that last year, fourteen weather disasters caused a billion dollars or more in damage. And yet House Republicans insisted on cutting funds for studying the climate, predicting violent storms, early storm warnings, and assistance in helping communities minimize damage and loss of life. They cut $140 billion from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Commission, the agency which monitors the climate and helps minimize damage and loss of life during storms, after trying to cut much more than that.

Last year’s GOP budget also slashed more than $500 million from the budget for weather prediction satellites. And they tried to cut funding for FEMA, the agency that helps people get through disasters like these, by more than half the previous year’s amount (which would have left FEMA with less than one-third of its 2010 budget).

This year’s House budget includes more of the same. In fact, economists who analyzed it have concluded that it in a few years there will be virtually no funds for any government activity except a growing military budget and spending that’s mandated by law.

Good Folks, Not-So-Good Politics

That’s what the citizens of Lexington, Texas, voted for when they elected Republican Michael McCaul to represent them in Congress. Now, we don’t mean to be harsh toward the area’s citizens, especially those in Lexington, which was one of Dallas’ hardest-hit suburbs this week. They’re undoubtedly extremely nice folks down in Lexington, and we’re grateful that neither they nor anybody else in the Dallas area got hurt by these storms.

In fact, I’ve read a little about the town and I’d like to go there. I’d like to see the Saturday cattle auction and grab a bite at Snow’s Bar-B-Q (which is top-rated by Texas Monthly and was called “the best barbecue in the world” by no less picky a bunch of strangers than the writers at The New Yorker.)

The problem isn’t the good people of Lexington. The problem is that they haven’t been given the information they need to make better political decisions. They may have seen the statement by Rep. McCaul, for example:

“The House Republican budget tackles the financial challenges that we face as a country head on. This budget consolidates, reforms, and lowers corporate and individual tax rates to just two brackets, reduces spending, and reforms entitlements. By exercising discipline in the ways that we spend and taking every opportunity to give job creators the freedom that they need to grow and be competitive in the global market, we can save future generations from bankruptcy and preserve vital programs …”

Rep. McCaul added without apparent irony that “The budget crisis was a foreseen national disaster.”

But the citizens of Lexington probably haven’t been told what that budget would do to them: to their retirement security, their ability to get health care in their senior years – or their safety during times of extreme weather.

Truth or Consequences

As for climate change, we know that it has already caused extreme changes, and there’s compelling evidence that it has helped drive tens of millions of people into hunger and poverty.

Can climate change cause tornadoes like the ones that struck Texas this week? Until last year many experts were cautious. But the drastic increase in tornado activity last year and this year has many of them prepare to make bolder statements than they’ve done in the past. A leading scientist commented that “what we can say with confidence is that heavy and extreme precipitation events often associated with thunderstorms and convection are increasing and have been linked to human-induced changes in atmospheric composition.”

The topic clearly needs more research – research that there will be less money to conduct because of Republicans like Romney and McCaul.

Money Talks

And that’s exactly the point. Corporate-funded front groups like ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council) support politicians like Romney and McCaul precisely so that Americans can’t learn about climate change caused by their products. ALEC-backed forces are fighting the Environmental Protection Agency (created by that well-known lefty Richard Nixon) and pushing to overturn carbon-emission protocols.

In its latest move, ALEC is sponsoring bills that force schools to teach children false science about climate change by requiring teachers to use phony textbooks to teach “both sides” of the issue – the one backed by scientific evidence, and the one which serves the financial interests of ALEC member corporations.

ALEC’s contributors , and the politicians that serve them, are literally willing to stop us from saving the planet – and to let people die – in order to protect their own corporate bottom line. (ALEC also backs “stand your ground” laws like the one that resulted in the death of Trayvon Martin. We discussed ALEC, Trayvon, and “stand your ground” on The Breakdown this weekend with Rashad Robinson, Executive Director for Color of Change.)

A Damn Shame

Were the citizens of the greater Dallas area struck by climate change this week? The most reasonable answer at this point is “We don’t know for sure” – although the evidence seems to be mounting. But here’s what we do know: We know that it will be a lot harder to discover the truth if Republicans like Mitt Romney and Mark McCaul have their way.

And we know that people like the good citizens of Lexington will be left more defenseless than ever against the possible loss of property – or worse – caused by violent storms of every kind, whatever their cause.

That would be a real shame. I love meeting good people like the folks in Lexington, Texas – and I love good barbecue, too.

Richard (RJ) Eskow, a consultant and writer (and former insurance/finance executive), is a Senior Fellow with the Campaign for America’s Future and the host of The Breakdown, broadcast Saturdays nights from 7-9 pm on WeAct Radio, AM 1480 in Washington DC.

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