Hot Texas Tea

With about 4.5 million public school students (using about 48 million textbooks, second only to California), when Texas modifies its textbook requirements, many of those changes become standard issue for the rest of the United States. Academic publishers cannot afford to create alternative variations for different states – a lowest common denominator effect. The Texas State Board of Education has rewritten history in those texts, including questioning the civil rights movement, minimizing the American slave trade and severely editing of mention of the architect of our Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson (because during much of his life, he questioned Christianity and was considered a deist). Oh, global climate change is just a theory to the Board, mandating that texts allow students to ““analyze and evaluate different views on the existence of global warming.”

In a state where every natural disaster seems to be blamed by local evangelicals on some version of “Godless behavior,” often having to do with gay marriage, the ban on public school prayer or other heathen activities, I wonder what such evangelicals believe that they must have done to engender the slow, crushing and unrelenting wrath of God in their own fair state. “The National Weather Service says 2011 was Texas’ driest year on record as well as its second hottest… Last year Texas suffered its worst single-year drought, its largest agricultural losses and the hottest summer in U.S. history. From June through August, Texas averaged 86.8 degrees, beating out Oklahoma's 85.2 degrees in 1934.” CBSnews.com, January 7^th. Hot and dry climate-driven devastation? Worse than any other state in the nation? Naw! Couldn’t be. Too ironic!

Indeed, a drought map of 2011 placed Texas as one of the world’s most severely impacted regions. “It is an angry red swath on the map, signifying what has been the driest year in the state’s history. It has brought immense hardship to farmers and ranchers, and fed incessant wildfires, as well as an enormous dust storm that blew through the western Texas city of Lubbock in the past month.” New York Times, October 31^st.

The devastation was horrid; fires raged in Texas in 2011, the worst in recorded history. According to TexasClimateNews.com (January 7^th):

Houston Chronicle science writer Eric Berger, meanwhile, had data from the Texas Forest Service on his blog that provided more grim context for the current fires:

· 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

· Total Aviation Hours: 13,216

· Gallons of water dropped: 20,555,281

With the U.S. producing around one-fifth of the world’s cotton, and Texas accounting for half that crop, and with the massive, the Texas high plains (where most of that crop grows) showed drops in output of 60% or more. Pumpkins, timber and peanuts faced equally devastating statistics. Hey, cowboys, what about your sector? “The worst drought in Texas' history has led to the largest-ever one-year decline in the leading cattle-state's cow herd, raising the likelihood of increased beef prices as the number of animals decline and demand remains strong.

“Since Jan. 1, the number of cows in Texas has dropped by about 600,000, a 12 percent decline from the roughly 5 million cows the state had at the beginning of the year, said David Anderson, who monitors beef markets for the Texas AgriLife Extension Service. That's likely the largest drop in the number of cows any state has ever seen, though Texas had a larger percentage decline from 1934 to 1935, when ranchers were reeling from the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, Anderson said.” Chron.com, December 16^th. The total agricultural losses in 2011 from this drought have impacted the Texas economy by a whopping estimated negative $5.2+ billion.

Riverbeds have dried out, groundwater has disappeared into the earth and deep fissures have cracked through once fertile farmland. Wildlife and their habitat have also suffered: “Scant rainfall and scorching temperatures in 2011 dried up many riverbeds, prompting some wildlife biologists to rescue threatened fish that are found only in one Texas river in the world.” YourHoustonNews.com, January 7^th.

So if such natural disasters are truly God’s retribution for Godless behavior, and since Texas does not recognize or permit gay marriage, perhaps it’s their fabrication and distortion of historical and scientific facts that they pass on to their children in doctored textbooks that must be to blame. On the other hand, this is the story of immense suffering and profound economic loss that should generate the sympathy and understanding this destruction really deserves. So instead of looking to see what these impacted farmers did wrong, perhaps we should instead see how we can mitigate their pain.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I prefer sympathy and support to bitterness and finding fault.