Former Vice President Al Gore told a group of environmentalists the recent heavy downpours and flooding in places like Houston and Louisiana are made worse by man-made global warming.
“Texas has really been hit hard by the climate crisis and, for the last 35 years, has had more billion-dollar-plus climate disasters than any other state,” Gore said said at an event held Tuesday by his activist group, The Climate Reality Project. “Houston in particular has been hard hit.”
Thousands of Louisianans have been hit hard by extreme flooding in the southern part of the state, wrecking 40,000 homes and killing 11 people. Some 30,000 people have been rescued from the flooding that was brought about by days of torrential rain.
Houston, Texas was hit with flooding in April, with some parts of the city seeing 20 inches of rain. About 1,200 people were rescued and at least six people died when flash flooding trapped them inside their cars.
Environmentalists were quick to blame global warming for making flooding in Houston and Louisiana worse than it would otherwise be. Gore doubled down on such claims and used the flooding to highlight the need to slow global warming.
“These kinds of record downpours — that’s one of the manifestations of the climate crisis,” Gore said.
