Luke Metzger
Executive Director, Environment Texas
Executive Director, Environment Texas
Environment Texas
AUSTIN – After a year that saw Texas hit by scorching heat, devastating wildfires, and extreme drought, a new Environment Texas report documents how global warming could lead to certain extreme weather events becoming even more common or more severe in the future. The report found that, already, 84% of Texans live in counties affected by federally declared weather-related disasters since 2006, including last year’s wildfires.
“21 million Texans have lived through extreme weather causing extremely big problems for Texas’ economy and our public safety,” said Luke Metzger, Director of Environment Texas. “Given that global warming will likely fuel even more extreme weather, we need to cut dangerous carbon pollution now.”
The new report, entitled In the Path of the Storm: Global Warming, Extreme Weather, and the Impacts of Weather-Related Disasters in the United States, examined county-level weather-related disaster declaration data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for 2006 through 2011 to determine how many Texans live in counties hit by recent weather disasters. The complete county-level data can be viewed through an interactive map available here. The report also details the latest science on the projected influence of global warming on heavy rain and snow; heat, drought and wildfires; and hurricanes and coastal storms. Finally, the report explores how the damage from even non-extreme weather events could increase due to other impacts of global warming such as sea level rise.
Key findings from the Environment Texas report include:
Metzger noted that global warming is expected to have varying impacts on different types of extreme weather events. While the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently concluded that it is “virtually certain” that hot days will become hotter and “likely” that extreme precipitation events will continue to increase worldwide, there is little scientific consensus about the impact of global warming on events such as tornadoes. In addition, every weather event is now a product of a climate system where global warming “loads the dice” for extreme weather, though in different ways for different types of extreme weather.
Texas State Climatologist Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon called the report “comprehensive and accurate” and said “the extraordinary drought of 2011 was extreme by any measure, but as the climate changes those extreme temperatures will very likely become more and more ordinary”.
“The Environment Texas report highlights the impacts of extreme weather events on Texas and quantifies our exposure,” said Dr. Kerry Cook, a climate researcher at the Jackson School of Geosciences at UT Austin. “Global warming will increase temperatures and decrease water availability significantly in the coming decades, and result in more extreme events in Texas. Our modification of the atmosphere’s composition has committed us to some of these changes already, underscoring the urgency to reduce emissions now”.
“Extreme weather is happening, it is causing very serious problems, and global warming increases the likelihood that we’ll see even more extreme weather in the future,” said state Representative Eddie Rodriguez. “Carbon pollution from our power plants, cars and trucks is fueling global warming, and so tackling global warming demands that we cut emissions of carbon pollution from those sources.”
The report was released as the Obama administration is finalizing historic new carbon pollution and fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks, and as the Environmental Protection Agency is poised to develop carbon pollution standards for coal-fired power plants—the largest single source of the carbon pollution that is fueling global warming. At the same time, some polluting industries and their allies in Congress are working to block these and other clean air standards.
“We applaud the Obama administration for the clean car standards they are finalizing, and urge EPA to move ahead with strong carbon pollution standards for coal-fired power plants,” said Metzger. “The extreme weather we suffered through in 2011 is a frightening reminder of why we must do everything we can to cut the dangerous carbon pollution that is fueling global warming, and lessen the threat of even worse extreme weather in the future.”