After getting sick from algae bloom exacerbated by heat wave and drought, Sen. Inhofe jokes, ‘The environment strikes back’

By Stephen Lacey
1 July 2011 Irony can be so ironic.  A day after cancelling his keynote address at the Heartland climate denial conference because he felt “under the weather,” Republican Senator Jim Inhofe today insisted his sickness was due to a toxic algae bloom on the Grand Lake in Oklahoma where he has a home – joking to a local newspaper that “the environment strikes back” and ”Inhofe is attacked by the environment.”

“There is no question,” the Oklahoma Republican said, linking what he thought was a routine dive into the lake last Monday morning to a severe upper respiratory illness. “That night, Monday night, I was just deathly sick.” Inhofe and his wife, Kay, have had a home on the lake for decades, and he has never seen that kind of algae in the water previously.

Inhofe’s run-in with algae comes as his state deals with a record-setting heat wave and drought not seen since the 1930’s – creating perfect conditions for blue-green algal blooms that can cause respiratory problems, diarrhea, skin irritation and, in rare cases, death. In Texas, cattle have been dying from drinking blue-green algae that scientists explain have blossomed due to severe drought conditions. A University of North Carolina researcher described the impact that extreme temperatures exacerbated by a changing climate could have on algae growth:

“It’s long been known that nutrient runoff contributes to cyanobacterial growth. Now scientists can factor in temperature and global warming,” said [Hans] Paerl, who, with Professor Jef Huisman from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, explains the new realization in a Science paper. “As temperatures rise waters are more amenable to blooms,” Paerl said. […]

After Getting Sick From Algae Bloom Exacerbated by Heat Wave and Drought, Inhofe Jokes the “Environment Strikes Back”