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Posts Tagged ‘winter’

Thousands rally to protest global warming

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , on February 5, 2011 |

Thousands rally to protest global warming

Photo by Greg Vaugh of Kansas

Heard from a friend yesterday, he’s originally from Connecticut, so unlike us south Texans, thinks one should drive around as long as you can see more than just the outline of a car covered in snow.  He ventured out at noon to get coffee and groceries at the Whole Foods in downtown Austin, but the roads were still frozen in the shadows and almost everything was closed down, so he turned around and headed home.
Family in Corpus Christi, TX emailed and said that the sleet came in fast yesterday and  they had over 100 accidents after it started.   Cars were stranded, then abandoned on some of the overpasses.  All the highway causeways (bridge crossings over the bays) and major bridges were closed by 7pm Thursday night and were not expected to reopen until noon on Saturday.   It got above freezing by noon on Friday, but temperatures dipped below freezing again by sundown.
Let us know what things were like in your community during the past few days.

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Baby It’s Cold Outside

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 13, 2010 |

So put on a sweater and crank up the thermostat! That was the major trend late last week and over the weekend, when arctic weather led Texas to set another winter power usage record.  According to the Abilene Reporter News,

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the grid operator for most of the state, reported a winter record of 55,856 megawatts Friday between 7 and 8 a.m. to erase the previous high of 52,001 set just 12 hours previously between 7 and 8 p.m. Thursday.

Those of you paying close attention may recall that last year Texas also set the record for summer energy consumption.

This year Texas used more energy staying cool in the hot hot summer, and more energy staying warm in the cold, cold winter, than in any other time in the past.

It has been so unusually cold in North America that “wintry weather sweeping across the Northern Hemisphere has slowed coal deliveries in parts of the U.S. South.” Though we’re feeling the chill here, but its actually been unseasonably warm in most other parts of the world like Greenland where they usually count on that cold to re-form ice sheets — some scientists are even saying 2010 will very likely be one of the warmest on record.

In just a year Texas has faced searing hot summers, cripplingly cold winters, devastating drought, no coal for frosty’s nose… makes you wonder if there’s something bigger going on out there.  Like some sort of, oh I dunno, massive shift — a massive change leading to extreme weather events. Not sure what to call it now, I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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