{"id":18988,"date":"2012-09-28T15:18:21","date_gmt":"2012-09-28T20:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=18988"},"modified":"2012-09-28T15:39:24","modified_gmt":"2012-09-28T20:39:24","slug":"reddit-commenters-debate-did-texas-deserve-the-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/09\/28\/reddit-commenters-debate-did-texas-deserve-the-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"Reddit Commenters Debate: Did Texas Deserve the Drought?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_12943\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/06\/28\/life-by-the-drop-between-hell-and-texas\/rivercwyman-meinzer\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12943\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12943\" title=\"River(c)Wyman Meinzer\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/06\/RivercWyman-Meinzer-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/06\/RivercWyman-Meinzer-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/06\/RivercWyman-Meinzer-620x413.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Photo by Wyman Meinzer\/Texas Monthly<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The bacteria Chromatiaceae grows in oxygen-deprived water. It turned Croton Creek, a tributary of the Brazos, eerily red during the 2011 drought.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Our story on how the <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/09\/25\/the-final-numbers-are-in-over-300-million-trees-killed-by-the-texas-drought\/\">drought killed over 300 million trees<\/a> in Texas got <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/environment\/comments\/10m8if\/worst_drought_in_texas_history_kills_over_300\/\">picked up<\/a> by the social news site Reddit today. And it didn&#8217;t take long for one<a href=\"http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/environment\/comments\/10m8if\/worst_drought_in_texas_history_kills_over_300\/\"> commenter<\/a> to pose the question: <em>Maybe Texas was asking for it?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Couldn&#8217;t happen to a more deserving state,&#8221; Reddit user <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/user\/quelar\">quelar<\/a> wrote. &#8220;Perhaps this may change some peoples minds about the dangers of global warming. But I know it won&#8217;t.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The idea that Texas <em>deserved<\/em> the drought because of state\u00a0officials\u00a0that deny climate change (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/fact-checker\/post\/rick-perrys-made-up-facts-about-climate-change\/2011\/08\/17\/gIQApVF5LJ_blog.html\">starting with the governor<\/a>) and industry-friendly policies is no doubt offensive to a wide variety of people in the state. And turns out it&#8217;s offensive to many in the Reddit community, too.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/user\/RjoTTU-bio\">RjoTTU0bio<\/a>\u00a0writes that he thinks the drought has forced many Texans to confront the reality of climate change: &#8220;As a Texan with a brother in Austin, parents in Houston, a girlfriend in Dallas, and that attends a college in Lubbock, I have seen it all. I witnessed the buffalo bayou drying up in west Houston, the dust storms in the plains, the drying up of lake Travis in Austin\/Marble Falls, the yellowing of yards in the suburbs, and the fires (some controlled) that hit central and north Texas.&#8221;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At one point I was driving from Lubbock to Dallas on 114, and as far as you could see to the south was dead burnt trees, and live trees to the north,&#8221; he continues. &#8220;I think the climate change skepticism is diminishing here in everyone other than the big oil employees.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/07\/11\/how-climate-change-exacerbated-the-drought\/\">How Climate Change Exacerbated the Drought<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/09\/13\/how-texas-quail-is-making-a-rebound-and-why-it-might-not-be-enough\/\">How Texas Quail Is Making a Rebound, And Why It Might Not Be Enough<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/09\/21\/the-drought-could-be-ending-thank-god-and-rick-perry\/\">The Texas Drought Could Be Ending, Thank God. (And Thank Rick\u00a0Perry?)<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/09\/25\/the-final-numbers-are-in-over-300-million-trees-killed-by-the-texas-drought\/\">The Final Numbers Are In: Over 300 Million Trees Killed By the Texas Drought<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/04\/Screen-Shot-2012-05-02-at-1.42.38-PM.png\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/drought-app\/\">An Interactive Look at the Texas Drought<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/10\/Rick-Perry-Governor-17-resize-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/rick-perry\/\">Your Guide to Rick Perry\u2019s Energy Policy<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/user\/Jackson3125\">Jackson3135<\/a> <\/em>concurs<em>:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I came in here for actual conversation and found only Texas bashing instead. Wow. Way to go, guys. You should feel proud of yourselves.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230; Don&#8217;t come in here and say that you hope MY state, and the state where literally MILLIONS of people vote left, turns into an environmental s%*# hole, or that somehow every Texan is to blame for the right wing and is\u00a0deserving\u00a0of their policies&#8217; resulting consequences.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/user\/saktiDC\">saktiDC<\/a> backs that up:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;100% with you. I can&#8217;t believe people would go that direction with this. Climate change effects everyone, and Texas is on the front lines. Stay liberal Jackson! We&#8217;ll make Texas a swing state yet \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>But not everyone in the forum is against the idea that Texas, in a way, had this coming. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/user\/cryptoz\">cryptoz<\/a> writes:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Texas governor Rick Perry has chosen to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/09\/21\/the-drought-could-be-ending-thank-god-and-rick-perry\/\"><em>pray for rain<\/em><\/a>\u00a0rather than do anything to address the actual problem. While I would never wish harm on people, it is interesting to see the people of Texas vote for politicians who are willfully ignorant of what a drought is and how it works. They definitely deserve what they get.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And we&#8217;ll leave you with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/user\/MoreBeansAndRice\">MoreBeansAndRice<\/a>&#8216;s response to that:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unless Rick Perry controls <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/El_Ni%C3%B1o%E2%80%93Southern_Oscillation\">ENSO<\/a> (La Nina was the primary driver of this drought) then I pretty sure that voting for him has nothing to do with the weather or climate.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our story on how the drought killed over 300 million trees in Texas got picked up by the social news site Reddit today. And it didn&#8217;t take long for one commenter to pose the question: Maybe Texas was asking for it? &#8220;Couldn&#8217;t happen to a more deserving state,&#8221; Reddit user quelar wrote. &#8220;Perhaps this may [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":12943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[61,140,85],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18988"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19017,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18988\/revisions\/19017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}