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Climate Catastrophe Forces Perry to Temporarily Suspend Denying Climate Catastrophe

Posted: 09/06/11 06:36 PM ET

Sadly, the new outbreak of massive wildfires in Texas has forced Gov. Rick Perry to return home and temporarily suspend his efforts educating voters that global warming is really "all one contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight."

Perry cut short a visit to South Carolina where he was campaigning for the Republican nomination for president. He also canceled a campaign trip to California.

The wildfires, unprecedented in history, are the result of a massive drought, also unprecedented in history, and a massive heat wave, also unprecedented in history, which has already caused over $5.2 billion in agricultural loses.

Perry has been using his campaign trips to cast doubt on the whole idea of global warming, and to promise not be spend taxpayer money on climate change research or policy: "I don't think from my perspective that I want to be engaged in spending that much money on still a scientific theory that has not been proven and from my perspective is more and more being put into question."

Given that the global warming-caused wildfires are zero percent controlled and rapidly expanding, Perry said it was too early to say whether he would be able to attend Wednesday's GOP debate in California and continue his important work of denying the existence of global warming.

Fun facts from the Texas Forest Service:

  • Six of the 10 largest wildfires in Texas history occurred in 2011.
  • Fires in Texas in 2011: 18,612
  • Acres burned in Texas in 2011: 3,486,124
  • Texas counties with burn bans: 251 of 254
  • Texas counties where Texas Forest Service has fought wildfires since November 15, 2010: 199 of 254
  • Homes and structures lost since November 15, 2010: 3,132
  • Since Nov. 15 more than 3.5 million acres have burned in Texas, breaking the all-time record of 2.1 million acres for the same period set back in 2005-2006.
 
 
 
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07:15 PM on 09/07/2011
I'm no Perry fan by any means, he's two faced and will side with whatever party promises him the best position politically. However that doesn't mean hes always wrong and on the climate fear campaign being waged against the public hes right.

These so called unprecedented fires in Texas are not about the fake global warming scam but the multiple frag ups by government from regulation to intervention in peoples personal property rights so as to make it impossible for Texans (or any other states citizens) to deal with nature effectively including fires.

Before government butted in and screwed it all up people could do as had always been done in Texas to minimize risk for fires like setting controlled burns, setting up natural fire barriers (i.e. clearing tress and the like to create fire lines) and clearing dead/fallen wood from the area that acts like an enhancer after its had time to dry out. Any fireman worth his salt thats not being paid to be some kind of "face" for the government will tell you that the extensive fire problems in this country are from the intervention of government and so called "Green" organizations that only make problems worse from their ignorance of how to work with nature.

Texas's fire problem is NOT from the Global Change fear Campaign!

BTW didn't the marketing people at "Carbon Credits Are Us" decide to switch from Climate Warming/Cooling to Climate Change?
ThinkCreeps
Seriously, it's time.
05:07 PM on 09/07/2011
It's just far too hot at the moment for Perry to be able to concentrate on such things.
04:38 PM on 09/07/2011
I don't know if these specific fires have anything to do with global climate change. To me that is not the point. We have a man leading one of the largest states in the union, and who wants to lead the nation, who generally denies the validity of science but is all too willing to fall back on prayer instead of empirical data and research.

That's just plain dangerous. I desperately fear a man who relies on a little voice in his head that he calls God to make his decisions. We just had a president like that and he got us into this huge mess.
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eaarth2
“An era ends when its illusions are exhausted
03:56 PM on 09/07/2011
Perry is going to start looking like Pinocchio- if he keeps denying climate change- but this is true for any other politico who chooses to deny global warming, or be afraid to say 'Climate change or global warming' this includes Obama as well.
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cliffstep
01:14 PM on 09/07/2011
You left one thing out. My only source is Jim Hightower being interviewed on TeeVee , but apparently , the Republican Texas government cut funding for volunteer fire departments 75%.
Those guys are the first - and sometimes only - responders in rural areas.
11:25 AM on 09/07/2011
The only way to get conservatives to acknowledge global climate change is to blame LIBERALS for trying to CHANGE the climate.

Conservatives will not respond to scientific evidence. But once you've made it clear that LIBERALS are trying to interfere with GOD'S CLIMATE PLAN, you'll have angry mobs out there with guns and bibles, screaming that we've got to stop Obama from changing the climate.

(How's that climate change-y thing workin' out for ya??)
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cliffstep
01:52 PM on 09/07/2011
That's it! All Obama has to do is give a major address , call for more coal consumption , less-efficient cars and trucks , and encourage businesses to toss all their raw waste into the nearest stream.
The house will triple funding for the EPA! And the Senate won't filibuster it!
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blarneydude
I can handle the truth. Now let's talk about you.
11:09 AM on 09/07/2011
Rick: some light reading.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/go-green/go-green-climate/2011/09/02/scientist-left-speechless-as-vast-glacier-turns-to-water-91466-29349051/

Upside: get some airplanes up there and BRING BACK THAT WATER.
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blarneydude
I can handle the truth. Now let's talk about you.
10:32 AM on 09/07/2011
One thing that I never hear anyone say is this:

If we "combat global warming" through aggressive action, we are at the very same time combating a number of other things that badly need combating: overuse of natural resources, carelessness, just plain greed and for God's sake the population bomb, to name just a few.

No one has provided a significant piece of evidence that human activity is not spurring warming. The only sane thing to do, in the face of the utter lack of such evidence, is to act as if it is. Humans are solely responsible for deforestation, which demonstrably removes protections against warming, and pumping of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which demonstrably accelerates it. To say nothing of the current rate of extinctions, which adversely affects the biodiversity necessary for biotic balance.

To continue to put the burden of proof on those who have plenty of evidence backing their case is to say one thing and one thing only: PARTY ON!

Which is great until the sun comes up after the party.

The Lorax was right. Were kids the only ones who got that? We need to stop biggering.

We might once have called this "restraint," something we as a species badly lack and have never needed more.
11:10 AM on 09/07/2011
well if everyone is so scared of global warming...start using the old air conditioner gases again....I remember when they were bringing on a new Ice Age. Get the mix right and they will negate each other.
theepoxyman
Reaching point of diminishing returns in 3,2,1
07:08 PM on 09/07/2011
That refrigerant was causing a hole in the ozone layer. Had the hole grown larger, or the ozone layer to disappear altogether you would have an entirely different type of global warming, as in DIRECT sunlight. Your argument is not well founded, or if it was said as a joke, it fails to be funny.
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cliffstep
01:18 PM on 09/07/2011
Like yer style , dude...
At the end of any argument , the unanswerable question is ,
"What , in and of itself , is bad about cleaning the air , the water , the ground?"
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Tygartman
Hoping for Change in 2012
09:16 AM on 09/07/2011
"...........global warming-caused wildfires............"

Please submit your proof. What would be the current weather in Texas if not for global warming?
ubrew12
that crazy uncle from Amarcord
11:18 AM on 09/07/2011
http://blog.chron.com/climateabyss/files/2011/08/txsum11.gif
The current weather would probably be somewhere on the curve.
11:41 AM on 09/07/2011
There's really no amount of evidence that would constitute acceptable proof for conservatives if "proving" it means that conservatives have to do something...think something...different than what they currently think and do.

The "proof" for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is an example of how conservatives manufacture proof and accept it as "sufficient enough proof" to act upon, since invading Iraq is what they wanted to do in the first place.

They don't want to respond to global climate change, and so there will never be enough proof of it.
06:26 AM on 09/07/2011
I personally don't believe in global warming but rather evolution. With our technology, I do believe we can somewhat control evolution if we know what's coming. Perry's problem is poor planning. He brags about tax cuts but let's see how many Texans are bragging now. These disaasters have shown that republican policies do little to protect the infrastructure of a state while at the same time providing billions in tax breaks for the super rich. When will they comprehend that we are all one? Yes, the rich can still make money but if they don't spread the wealth, dire things can happen down the road. I would like to know how many homes could have been saved if they had an adequate number of fireman.
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JPETERB
02:00 PM on 09/07/2011
If one did not believe in gravity, one would still fall on one's face if one tripped.
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KarlaElisa
The atmosphere is Toxic
01:29 AM on 09/07/2011
What a perfect title!
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SunnyDaySam
To Err is Human, to Forgive is Canine
09:16 AM on 09/07/2011
I like it too- it's right out of 'the Onion' ;-]
been2there
Facts have a liberal bias.
08:27 PM on 09/06/2011
Thanks to climate deniers, this will be the new norm until we deal with our carbon footprints. Texas, a wholly owned subsidiary of big oil, will have to be dragged into reality kicking and screaming.
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blarneydude
I can handle the truth. Now let's talk about you.
11:10 AM on 09/07/2011
F/F. The micro-bio says it all.
07:30 PM on 09/06/2011
Dear Bob, if the problem is global warming why has Texas shown zero warming for the last 116 years? Here is the NOAA/NCDC data.

http://screencast.com/t/y7VloqdK

Also Bob, why has annual rainfall been increasing for the last 116 years? Here is the data again

http://screencast.com/t/Khy3Xvo0xw4

My research shows that La Nina has much to do with drought in the Southwest and there is in-situ data showing that past drought lasted 60 years in the Southwest. I would also bet that land change use from the growing Texas population over the last 100 years also influenced climate. My conversations with climatologist suggest that climate change trends require 30 to 50 years to identify themselves via data. Why the anti-science noise suggesting that one or two years of weather is somehow proof of global warming affecting Texas? Were you also suggesting that record cold and snow elsewhere in the USA in recent years is proof that global warming isn't real? Again go back to the temperature and precipitation data that I linked to and enlighten me where you see unprecedented trend in Texas climate and what is causing the trend because I don't see any in the data.
02:15 AM on 09/07/2011
If you are going to come up with fake graphs, no one will ever believe another dang thing you post.
Here brainiac, here is the data straight from the source.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/time-series/index.php?parameter=tmp&month=7&year=2011&filter=ytd&state=41&div=0
Is your position so weak you have to lie? Guess you already answered that question
08:15 AM on 09/07/2011
You say one persons date is false, then you provide your own. Why should we believe yours isn't false?
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Jim Milks
Ecologist
08:55 AM on 09/07/2011
Space Funk is at least going to the data. Now all he has to do is apply the proper corrections for known biases in the data.
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quillsinister
02:25 AM on 09/07/2011
Kilroy addressed temperature, so I'll just mention that warmer air holds more moisture and can lead to more precipitation. If heat always resulted in aridity, the equatorial rain forests would not exist.
10:21 AM on 09/07/2011
There is a chart from NOAA for that too:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/time-series/index.php?parameter=pcp&month=7&year=2011&filter=ytd&state=41&div=0
Note the trend line is down. The trend is on both charts is noted at the top. Simply put, more heat, less rain. Oh and I didn't cherry pick, I used all the available data, 1895 to today.
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10:56 AM on 09/20/2011
ha ha ha ha warmer air holds more moisture and
the ether communicates radio waves . . .
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Powderfinger
07:10 PM on 09/06/2011
Think of all those firefighters who can go to work now. This is job creation, Texas-style!
CognitoErgoSum
CogitoErgoSum was taken when I signed up.
09:30 PM on 09/06/2011
Except that the GOP won't spend any money on them unless someone else suffers.
11:19 AM on 09/07/2011
come on down.....if you can get on line and make fun of a disaster...you don't have anything to do. Shame on you....but you know what. If where you live is ever afflicted by Mom Nature...there will be TEXANS up there helping you. WE aren't the lagarts that poke fun of other people's trauma.
So when can we expect you? Bastrop is burning...I'll meet you there.
KingCranky
Texas Liberal
06:51 PM on 09/06/2011
And who wouldn't want President Perry's policies for the whole country, considering how "well" Texas is doing right now under his leadership, out of control wildfires, and bringing about a $25 billion deficit, "fixed" by eliminating funding for students to have new history textbooks and cutting volunteer firefighting funding by 75%?
been2there
Facts have a liberal bias.
08:28 PM on 09/06/2011
Considering the changes proposed for the new history books, that may actually have been a good thing!