Former Vice President Al Gore addresses climate-conscious Texans in Houston

Former Vice President Al Gore in Houston addressing climate-conscious Texans

There was a time in Texas when discussing global warming was a sure-fire way to lose an election. Now, two out of three Texans believe the climate is changing.

HOUSTON - Into the energy capital of the nation where hundreds of thousands make their living from fossil fuels came a well-known voice of warning and a call for change.

"The United Nations issued a report that every child alive today will be a victim of the climate crisis because we are seeing such dramatic changes take place," said former Vice President Al Gore.

Speaking with evangelical fervor at Texas Southern University, Gore called out back-to-back-to-back weather catastrophes afflicting the Bayou City as no-coincidence and a clear signal to move rapidly away from climate warming oil and natural gas.

"Houston was hit by ten major flood events and three once-in-a-thousand-year downpours. Is anybody here majoring in statistics? A once-in-a-thousand-year downpour, I'm given to believe, is not supposed to occur every year," said Gore adding "When it started they (the fossil fuel industry) had no intention of creating this global catastrophe, but they are still doing it."

Once a non-starter for politicians entering the oil-dependent Lone Star state, Democratic Presidential hopefuls are now embracing a transition which threatens more than half million "traditional" energy jobs statewide.

13 days out from Super Tuesday in Texas, FOX 26 spoke about the issue of climate change with candidate Tom Steyer.

MORE: FULL INTERVIEW with presidential candidate TOM STEYER

"We are going to have to rebuild the United States, including Texas and that is going to create literally millions of good-paying union jobs over four and a half million. We are going to make sure that any worker in a declining industry, in a fossil fuel industry, is held harmless in terms of wages, health care and retirement. We put that aside from the beginning. We are not going to solve this on the back of working people in the fossil fuel industry," said Steyer.

A November 2019 UT/Texas Tribune poll found two-thirds of Texas voters and 88 percent of the state's Democrats believe climate change is real.