County Judge Clay Jenkins
Mayors from 83 cities — but none in North Texas — have agreed to honor the commitments in the Paris climate accord. That includes three Texas mayors — Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Smithville Mayor Scott A Saunders. Smithville is southeast of Austin.
Texas might seem like an unlikely leader in fighting climate change, but we’re the leading state in producing energy through wind power.
While Mayor Mike Rawlings is not on the list of mayors committed to fighting climate change — yet — County Judge Clay Jenkins pulled out the Ebola card, threw in some death and destruction and issued the following statement about how climate change has already affected Dallas:
“The President is abandoning the fight against the Earth’s biggest threat. Humankind is facing violent weather and dangerous high temperatures. In the last five years, Dallas County has fought two deadly emerging disease emergencies exacerbated by climate change that claimed 19 lives to West Nile Virus and another to Ebola. Increasingly violent weather claimed four lives in the flooding of 2015 and nine more in the 2016 tornadoes. Counties, cities and business will need to redouble our efforts, to demonstrate to the world that President Trump’s action does not reflect the views and values of most Americans. Everyone has a role to play. We must think globally and act locally.”
Dallas Voice has reached out to Mayor Rawlings’ office for comment, but have not yet heard back from them. We will update this post when they contact us.