Star-Telegram: Could the Texas tourist mecca of South Padre Island be wiped out 50 to 100 years from now as a result of rising sea levels caused by global warming? Could cotton farmers and cattle ranchers in the Texas Panhandle be devastated in coming decades by brutal droughts made more severe by climate change? Those are the types of nightmarish real-world scenarios that environmental groups and many scientists say could result if nothing is done to thwart global warming. As …