Yesterday, I was watching MSNBC when they cut to a local Oklahoma station that was monitoring a massive tornado (as it turned out, there were several) that was cutting a swath of destruction through the Sooner state. The anchor said that he was versed in politics but not weather, so they had a meteorologist call in to help explain the behavior and dangers of tornadoes. This meteorologist was also a local Oklahoman man. When the anchor asked him if climate change could be responsible for the outbreak of very powerful tornadoes this spring, he responded first by noting that he was getting that same question from virtually everyone he met on the street. He went on to say that he couldn’t prove that climate change was responsible and he couldn’t prove that it wasn’t.
I mention this because despite Oklahoma being represented in the Senate by Jim Inhofe, who is the Ranking Member on the Senate Environment Committee, and who is the nation’s most prominent climate science denier, the average person on the street in Oklahoma definitely has climate change on their minds.
Climate scientists have predicted that warming temperatures will lead to stronger storms. Take, for example, the following conclusion from a study done in 2007 by NASA‘s Goddard Institute for Space Studies:
The central and eastern areas of the United States are especially prone to severe storms and thunderstorms that arise when strong updrafts combine with horizontal winds that become stronger at higher altitudes. This combination produces damaging horizontal and vertical winds and is a major source of weather-related casualties. In the warmer climate simulation there is a small class of the most extreme storms with both strong updrafts and strong horizontal winds at higher levels that occur more often, and thus the model suggests that the most violent severe storms and tornadoes may become more common with warming.
Tornadoes are unpredictable and the science is not conclusive, but we do know that warmer weather does lead to more tornadoes in some sophisticated simulations. Preventing the climate from warming may be the only thing we could do to lessen the impact of strong storms and tornadoes. I mean, can you think of anything else we could do?
So, naturally, the House Republicans have decided to offset the cost of paying for emergency relief to this year’s tornado victims by eliminating $1.5 billion from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program at the Department of Energy.
Here’s the Wiki on that program.
Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program is a $25 billion direct loan program funded by Congress in fall 2008 to provide debt capital to the U.S. automotive industry for the purpose of funding projects that help vehicles manufactured in the U.S. meet higher millage requirements and lessen U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
One way climate scientists tell us we can reduce or prevent global warming is to burn less gasoline in our cars and trucks. The Republicans could have chosen almost anything to cut as an offset for emergency relief to tornado victims, but they chose to target a program that might actually contribute to fewer tornadoes. And just to make sure that we know that they are giving us the finger, they took more money than they gave back.
ThinkProgress has acquired the text of the Aderholt amendment. Of the $1.5 billion cut from the clean cars program, only $1 billion is directed to disaster relief, while $500 million is simply rescinded.
You want more irony? “Aderholt” refers to Congressman Bob Aderholt of Alabama who sits on the House Committee of Appropriations.
The bulk of the 2011 fatalities and property damage have occurred during two major tornado outbreaks.
The first occurred over a four-day period in late April and is known as the 2011 Super Outbreak. It most notably wreaked havoc in Alabama, but also produced destructive tornadoes throughout Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennesee and Virginia.
At least 344 were killed, with 238 in Alabama alone, making April 27 the deadliest tornado day since the 1925 “Tri-State” outbreak. Total property damage has been estimated at $10bn.
How aggressively stupid do you have to be to respond to the death of 238 of your constituents and fellow Alabamans by rescinding money for one of the few things we have going to prevent (hopefully) more giant tornadoes?