Climate Report Paints Bleak Picture Of Texas' Future - Am. Statesman

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Climate Report Paints Bleak Picture Of Texas' Future - Am. Statesman

Within the next century, hotter weather in Central Texas will lead to longer droughts, the amount of water making its way into the Edwards Aquifer will drop, crops may wither, and the tree line that divides lush East Texas and bone-dry West Texas — it now sits just along Interstate 35 — might push east. Austin, in short, could start looking a lot like San Angelo.

Those predictions are part of a report on global warming and Texas published today by Environmental Defense, an advocacy group. The report's authors say they wrote the report to urge lawmakers to make rules that cut down on emissions of greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming.

Texas can expect "more heat waves, worse air quality, increased risk of disease, droughts, wildfires and coastal erosion," warned the report, titled "Fair Warning: Global Warming and the Lone Star State." The report acknowledges that the scenarios it presents are "not a guaranteed list of date-certain predictions," and, indeed, the report is peppered with woulds, coulds, likelys and mays. But the authors say that global warming itself has already begun, and climate change will not be stopped unless there is local and international action to curtail emission of greenhouse gases.

"As the nation's leading carbon emitter," conclude the authors, "Texas has a moral responsibility to its citizens and its neighbors to show leadership by reducing our carbon footprint and doing what we can to slow the consequences of global warming."

EDIT

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/loca...

Thanks, Duer Hatrack, I think?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=54937&mesg_id=54937