Science – Voices of Austin @CCLATX

Re: Feb. 12 letter to the editor, ‘Liberals’ goal of implementing deal would drive up energy costs’

The chairman of the Railroad Commission exemplifies why we are not able to address the climate crisis. He needs to listen to what Texans want:

Climate change is not a liberal or conservative issue; it is a major crisis for humanity.
Republicans and Democrats who look at scientific facts without a bias realize that harmful emissions from coal, oil and gas are warming the planet.
A majority of Texans want sustainable energy path that would not harm our state or the U.S. and that would reduce intensity of extreme weather events.
Texas has shown leadership in renewable energy production and can continue to maintain that without sacrificing health and well-being of people if investments in clean energy were accelerated
We need to stabilize the climate, which is not possible with current policies.

Kalpana Sutaria

Austin American-Statesman

February 16, 2022

As I sat trapped in my house during an unprecedented Arctic freeze, I hoped my power wouldn’t fail.

I jumped each time an ice-laden branch from my heritage oaks fell onto my roof or in my eerily frozen yard. I worried about my wife driving home from her commute on slick roads in an ice storm. I watched as my resident wild birds– with no choice but to endure during this extreme cold–clustered around my feeders, dependent upon my refilling them.

And I wondered whether a nationally renewed validation of science can help facilitate an understanding how arctic warming actually sends polar weather to Texas, with potentially devastating effects. We will certainly need to employ science with a COVID-level sense of urgency if we are going to make even the slightest headway in coping with the truly existential climate crisis we are still facing.

Martin Byhower

Austin American-Statesman

February 27, 2021