Think Progress

Bush and Inhofe’s Home States Scorched By Wildfires And Droughts

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), the outgoing chairman of the Senate environment committee, calls climate change “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” But the facts about global warming are clear, and as ClimateProgress notes, the evidence is right in Inhofe’s backyard.

A record-high 9.5 million acres have been burned by wildland fires in 2006, according to the National Climatic Data Center. As the U.S. Drought Monitor shows below, the northern part of Inhofe’s home state of Oklahoma is “currently experiencing the most severe levels of drought in the U.S.,” while “nearly all of Oklahoma is at least experiencing ‘abnormally dry’ (yellow) conditions.” President Bush’s home state of Texas is also undergoing critical drought conditions.

Data from more than 50 climate models have revealed a direct link between rises in global temperature and damage to ecosystems, including higher risks of “forest fires, droughts and flooding.” Almost 45 percent of the contiguous U.S. experienced “moderate to extreme droughts” this year, while “some areas, such as the Northeast of the country experienced record rainfalls and severe floods.” Researchers announced in May that deserts in the American Southwest “are creeping toward heavily populated areas as the jet streams shift,” meaning areas “already stressed by drought may get even drier.

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54 Responses to “Bush and Inhofe’s Home States Scorched By Wildfires And Droughts”

  1. And You Thought REAGAN Was Stupid says:

    Inhofe added, “Those wildfires don’t exist. They are part of the second greatest hoax ever perpetuated by the media. Now, where’s my limo?”


  2. [Billy Bob] says:

  3. ForTruth says:

    Gosh where does the bread and butter come from? For now its the oil and gas companies, after the drought, no more bread and butter.


  4. PatrioticLiberalChristian(PLC) says:

    Do you think Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell will come out and say that God is angry at their environmental stance and policies and is sending them the message to change?…Nah.


  5. PatrioticLiberalChristian(PLC) says:

    Gore/Obama–08

    One of many good combinations.


  6. Mark says:

    Why does god hate Texas and Oklahoma so much that he is trying to burn them down? Afterall he tried to flood New Orleans for its wickedness, so what wickedness goes on in those states that he wants to burn them?


  7. RUCerious says:

    See – it’s not nice to piss off Crom, gloomy god of the Cimmerians!


  8. [Billy Bob] says:

    (PLC)

    Bozo/Mickey Mouse would be a better combination than Bush/Cheney.


  9. Flaco says:

    Al Gore the savior of the world.
    Help us out of this quagmire. Oh enlightened one save us before it is too late. Our doomsday has arrived, we are hopeless. The future of the universe depends on Al Gore.
    I have prayed and fasted that the chosen one would come.

    Superhero Al Gore has already saved the planet once when he was vice president.
    “Can’t you guys keep this planet CO2 free for 10 minutes? I feel like the maid.”
    He must return as President to clean up the world again.

    Comment by Flaco


  10. upside00 says:

    #6

    Think it might be that those states have produced senator In-a-huff, Smokey Joe “what global warming” Barton, Tom “kill-a-bug” Delay, and the Clown Prince of Texas….DUBYA!


  11. RUCerious says:

    Hey flaco – you don’t have to sign your name, the site does that for you does that for you.


  12. Zooey says:

    As the U.S. Drought Monitor shows below, the northern part of Inhofe’s home state of Oklahoma is “currently experiencing the most severe levels of drought in the U.S…”

    Inhofe: No it’s not.


  13. PatrioticLiberalChristian(PLC) says:

    RUCerious

    Flaco = RogerRoger’s twin? Two, two trolls in one!


  14. RUCerious says:

    Has anyone asked Inhofe to spell
    K – A – R – M – A ??


  15. Democrat Soldier says:

    Oh, My, God!

    Flaco is starting to wake up from his kool-aide induced Republi-coma and realising that the Democrats are the only real hope for America!

    Good for you, Flaco! Being Republican means you don’t have to think for yourself, just learn the party-line and repeat.

    I’m glad that you’ve decided to start thinking for yourself! Keep up the good work! (Just don’t go overboard on your partisan hackery, like you did in post #9)

    Seasons greetings, all!


  16. GSD says:

    Jeebus has got the wingnut flamethrower going at full speed.

    Sorry for these folks living in moron central.

    -GSD


  17. upside00 says:

    Guess it isn’t really true that God looks out for Fools, Repugs, Okies and Texans. (Must be too hard, even for God!)


  18. Kevin says:

    Chart shows a drought but does not prove Global Warming. Or show that it’s man made. I did see the story last week with the poor folks in the space station having to huddle in a heavily shielded part of the station. Sun flairs. But the Sun can’t be responsible for “global warming.” It can only be evil corporations that can only make money be destroying the environment. Because no one should make money ever.


  19. PatrioticLiberalChristian(PLC) says:

    poor folks in the space station having to huddle in a heavily shielded part of the station. Sun flairs. But the Sun can’t be responsible for “global warming.” …Comment by Kevin

    Yeah and if we destroy the ozone layer which shields the Space Station Earth, we can huddle ourselves in Hell!


  20. RUCerious says:

    Kevin – How much data is it going to take to convince you?
    Oh, never mind. There’s plenty of data, but you are beyond convincing.
    You can take a jackass to water, but you may have to drown it if it won’t drink.


  21. upside00 says:

    It can only be evil corporations that can only make money be destroying the environment. Because no one should make money ever.

    Kevin Kevin Kevin -

    No one ever said making money is a sin, but it CAN be done without destroying our planet and killing hundreds of thousands of people in an illegal war. (see Cheney/Halliburton’s Tax returns)


  22. Hardy Haberman says:

    And as the great plains become the Great American Desert I wonder if Inhoff and the other corporate toadies will complain about the cost of wheat? Probably not since they will have long left the country and moved to the Middle East on a private island. What world do these idiots live in?


  23. Zimzone says:

    Inhofe is the poster boy for dumbshits.
    Way to go, Jimmy!
    Oh, have you looked outside lately?
    Hell is coming for YOU!


  24. seeprogress says:

    WATCH SEEPROGRESS on YouTube

    http://www.youtube.com/user/seeprogress

    Tune in to watch ThinkProgress’s Judd Legum take on Pat Buchanan on MSNBC’s Scarborough Country last night


  25. tom baker says:

    What’s the wingnut take on why the Lord punishes those fine red states so angrily??? Daryll??


  26. gogreen says:

    #18

    Go here and read throroughly. When you can logically interpret and refute this data in peer-reviewed scientific forums, e.g., journals and conferences, then you will be free to make authoritative tatements about the falsity of global warming.


  27. VerbalKint says:

    But the Sun can’t be responsible for “global warming.” It can only be evil corporations that can only make money be destroying the environment. Because no one should make money ever.

    Comment by Kevin — December 20, 2006 @ 12:14 pm

    When you have no hope of arguing your point, I guess it’s time to build up some straw men to knock down.

    Kevin, are you seriously questioning global warming science? Because if you are, I feel duty bound to explain to you that this topic has become a sort of barometer of basic intelligence, i.e. global warming deniers are severely lacking it.


  28. klyde says:

    Hey it was nearly 50 degrees here yesterday, went out to lunch without a jacket. Who says global warming is a bad thing? ;)


  29. little birdie says:

    This is off of this thread – House Armed Services Chairman ‘Extremely Concerned’ With Iraq Escalation Plans -Dec. 18 ,2006

    Available in older posts section for free and at absolutely no charge. You have to read the whole thread to appreciate it.It`s a real gem.

    Not so fast;I have one thing I’d like to add to this discussion.

    Atleast twice in the last 50 posts,unbelievable said that she ‘doesn’t lie’.
    Yet she told me,thus everyone else on this blog,last spring,that her Mother was dead.This turned out NOT to be TRUE.
    Now answer your own question: What kind of person would say that about their own Mother just for the sake of winning an argument?
    Now you all are beginning to see why I’ve had such acrimony with her in the past.

    Just for the record,BnF, I never,ever,insulted her Mother,that’s if you were referring to something I might have said.
    She told me her Mom was dead after I said she probably lives at home with her Mom.
    All this can be found in the archives.
    This is who you are dealing with,and she has no respect.

    Comment by Si Byl — December 20, 2006 @ 2:22 am

    Trueblue,

    Of course, Unbelievable is offended by any remark about sexuality:

    Men’s peak is 17, and women’s is 40. I’m guessing I’m closer to 40 than you are to 17? :)

    Comment by unbelievable — April 17, 2006 @ 4:03 pm

    and:

    I think it’s a plot by women in their 40’s so they can get 17 year old men :)

    Comment by Tundra — April 17, 2006 @ 4:19 pm

    I assure you, that’s mostly a guy fanatasy. As men age they get better in other ways. :)

    Comment by unbelievable — April 17, 2006 @ 4:29 pm

    and this:

    If a course is called “Shaving your legs” there is no reason to discuss how to braid leghair (That’s for unbelievable)

    Comment by Tundra — April 17, 2006 @ 8:34 pm

    Flirting with me again, I see ; )

    Comment by unbelievable — April 17, 2006 @ 8:49 pm

    finally capped of by this:

    If I were asked for a one line answer to the question “What makes a woman good in bed?” I would say, “A man who is good in bed.”

    - – Bob Guccione (1978)

    Comment by unbelievable — April 18, 2006 @ 4:51 pm

    and the email Unbelievable misquotes?

    “If I were asked for a one line answer to the question “What makes a woman good in bed?” I would say, “A man who is good in bed.”
    - – Bob Guccione (1978)
    Comment by unbelievable ”

    amen to that!!! (care to put the hypothesis to a test? —just kidding…)

    Perhaps it is Unbelievable who is envious of my spirituality. She has derided the thought of breathing a cloud away, yet I’ve taught others to do so as well.

    Perhaps she was offended because I was just kidding. After all, I have mentioned on these boards that I wear a kilt. And you know what they say about a woman scorned. I mean, to take what I wrote and somehow twist that into insinuating that I, a married man, was interested in having an adulterous affair with someone who lives a couple of thousand miles away takes either dimentia, a great imagination, or wishful thinking.

    And Trueblue, as you can see, a shaman would say “Amen.”

    There’s another word, a greeting, I say to you:

    Namaste.

    Comment by Briseadh na Faire — December 19, 2006 @ 7:53 pm


  30. wcnews says:

    What do you mean? Connecticut looks fine.


  31. KikiD says:

    It kind of reminds me of 2005 when Florida was almost wiped off the map for voting to keep Dubya in the White House.

    What’s your point, little birdie? Or, in other words, who cares?


  32. Jeff Mack says:

    Political? Damn right! Tree Hugger? Are trees evil? Hug someting evil? Like trees? How far can they skew the retoric? It is simply beyond the pale. We have the complexity of intelligence. This is our planet. The science is in. There is no question about the role of CO2. It traps heat. We spew enormous amounts of it into the enviorment. Hello! Did I mention that trees were evil?


  33. upside00 says:

    Maybe In-a-huff will get the Medal of Freedom too!


  34. upside00 says:

    Ever notice how a lot of these trolls (Kevin, ya reading this?) just make a statement and then fade away.
    (Maybe takes more than a Repug bullet-point memo to have any true discourse.)


  35. Inhofe says:

    Drought…oh yeah…i like that kind of beer, too, though bourbon is much better…


  36. Raven says:

    #34..
    I’ve noticed the tactic, throw out a bone, and then leave…
    “Daryll” has the exact same M.O. …


  37. tom baker says:

    Hey Hardy Haberman – Are you from Chicago? I think I knew a guy by that name when I lived there in the late 80’s. I worked with Sean Peterson, painting on the north side.


  38. Lauren says:

    I live in Oklahoma right now… unfortunately… and the fires were really crazy here. When I heard Inhofe’s comment I had to control every urge I had to find him and slap him in the face. I didn’t vote for him…


  39. upside00 says:

    #36

    I have seen him do it too. Maybe this just moves too fast for them.


  40. upside00 says:

    #38 Lauren -

    Could you PULEEEZE round up some of your other triple digit friends in Oklahoma and make sure this Oil-slick doesn’t get re-elected?

    Our planet will thank you!


  41. IraqVet says:

    CONGRATS OKLAHOMA!!!

    I know there are MANY who did not vote for James I’m a Hoe, but for the majority that did…Does this truly represent the intelligence that is supposed to inspire people to look at you as something other than a society of dark age, back woods, dimwits that believe everything that an IDIOT like I’m a Hoe?

    But, hey, it has to be the people that ENABLE this IDIOT, because with a lack of opposition from his homestate, the representation here is very very discouraging of what they think is going on!



  42. joeslogic says:

    By the way idiots it was a lot hotter also.


  43. tom baker says:

    poor simple joe – at least you’re getting some attention here, which i’m sure you don’t wherever you are out there in the real world. poor sad lil feller….


  44. cosmosis says:

    It looks like Cheney’s Wyoming is getting scorched too. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving crowd.


  45. cosmosis says:

    Hey, illogical Joe: don’t you have a freeper anonymous meeting to attend?


  46. JPark says:

    joeslogic-I love the irony of your handle.


  47. ForTruth says:

    How many times does it have to be said that Inhofe is a moron?


  48. Zooey says:

    Well, I’m convinced Inhofe’s a moron, but I could hear it a few more times.


  49. red poets society says:

    global warming’s fake i know
    cuz my preznit tells me so
    truthiness georgie can pass
    with his head wedged up his ass


  50. joeslogic says:

    HEY ALL YOU RETARDS. Gg ahead and google search “Dust Bowl”

    This was much worse. You think with one tenth of the pollution that the climate would have been like a rain forest huh?

    But it goes to show how ignorant the left wingers are.


  51. Kari says:

    You’re right to point out the extreme circumstances of the Dust Bowl, but need to take a second look at its causes, explained in the very sites that the Google search brought up in your original post.

    If you follow the first link, the third paragraph starts by explaining that:
    “Poor agricultural practices and years of sustained drought caused the Dust Bowl.”

    The first cause, our own agriculture practices that disrupted the moisture cycles in the topsoil, is a perfect example of how people impact their climate. That is the case that climate change is making, and this further proves that.

    The second cause was the drought. The fifth search result is from Wikipedia, which also recognizes that “decades of inappropriate farming techniques” fueled the dust storms. But more important is that it links, at the bottom, to an external NASA report explaining the causes of the drought.

    NASA found that cooler temperatures over the Pacific Ocean combined with warmer temperatures from the Atlantic Ocean and where they met, over the Great Plains, the two created the atmospheric conditions ripe for drought. The drought was therefore primarily caused by a change in sea surface temperatures, which is exactly what global warming is doing. Among other effects, it is warming sea surface temperatures.

    In fact, halfway through the report one of the scientists in charge, Siegfried Schubert, stated that:

    “The 1930s drought was the major climatic event in the nation’s history. Just beginning to understand what occurred is really critical to understanding future droughts and the links to global climate change issues we’re experiencing today.”

    Ignorance is, according to dictionary.com, “The condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed”, and colloquially, that often means by choice. It can be like selective hearing. Had you thoroughly checked your sources and compared them with what scientists know about global warming, I think you would have found a bit of your own selective understanding of the situation.


  52. paul says:

    Dr. Christopher Landsea, a scientist at the Hurricane Research Division of the U.S. Department of Commerce and one of the world’s foremost experts on hurricanes, has publicly resigned from authorship of an upcoming United Nations report on climate change. Landsea charged that the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is “both being motivated by pre-conceived agendas and being scientifically unsound.”


  53. Karim says:

    So much for the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people”, eh, Senator?



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