A seemingly innocuous Twitter post from scientist Bill Nye linking historic flooding in Texas to climate change sent conservatives into a frenzy this week.
According to Scientific American, Houston saw 10 inches of rain within 24 hours on Monday, causing what Republican Gov. Greg Abbott called the "the biggest flood this area of Texas has ever seen."
For climate scientists like Brenda Ekwurzel of the Union of Concerned Scientists, the link to a warming planet was obvious.
“When you have a warmer atmosphere, then you have the capability to hold more water vapor," Ekwurzel explained. "When storms organize, there’s much more water you can wring out of the atmosphere compared to the past.”
So, Nye's tweet urging meteorologists to explain the link to their audiences did not come as a shock for most of his followers.
"Billion$$ in damage in Texas & Oklahoma. Still no weather-caster may utter the phrase Climate Change," Nye wrote.
However, many conservatives on Twitter lashed out at the famous scientist.
"Hey, dipshit non-science guy, give your climate scam a rest while they're still searching for bodies," Twitter user JammieWF demanded, adding, "F*cking asshole."
The conservative Twitter-tracking website Twitchy opined that Nye's comment had been "so predictable."
"Although just last year it was drought in Texas that was caused by global warming," Twitchy remarked. "What’s even funnier is that Nye thinks his alarmism that blames every, single weather event on manmade global warming is just what’s needed to convince more people that the alarmist camp knows what it is talking about."
