Environment
As Fossil Fuel Industry Invests Billions in New Texas Facilities, it Could Unleash a Huge Emissions Bomb
How Texas Prairies Could Help Combat Climate Change
Native grasslands once covered most of Texas, acting as an important carbon sink. Which is why restoring the land to prairie is increasingly important in the face of climate change.
The Amazon rainforest has been burning particularly intensely this year—so much so that the smoke from the fires obscures the last hours of daylight in São P...Read More
Julián Castro’s Climate Plan Addresses Environmental Racism
Other candidates focus on broad policies that affect everyone. That’s undeniably good, but it elides that fact that environmental injustices have historically hurt poor, minority communities the most.
At Wednesday night’s climate crisis town hall with the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, a nurse from Brooklyn asked former San Antonio Mayor Julián C...Read More
Two Houston Archives Gather Harvey Memories for Historians of the Future
They’re a time capsule of the destruction wrought by the deadliest storm to hit Texas since 1919.
In a photo taken shortly after Hurricane Harvey swamped Houston two years ago, a black luxury SUV sits submerged in murky brown floodwaters. In the background, ...Read More
The Environmental Protection Agency Wants to Repeal its Methane Emissions Limits
Texas, the nation’s largest oil and gas producer, doesn’t otherwise regulate the potent greenhouse gas.
When it comes to climate change, what happens in Texas—the nation’s top oil and gas producer—increasingly doesn’t stay in Texas. The Lone Star state acc...Read More
In Houston, Thousands Continue to Wait for Harvey Relief Money
More than 4,500 households have applied for city assistance, but fewer than two dozen applicants have been approved.
Two years ago, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Southeast Texas, eventually parking over the Houston area, where it dumped an historic 60 inches of rain. The C...Read More
Two Years After Hurricane Harvey, Port Arthur Remains in Disaster Recovery Limbo
The storm-ravaged coastal city is trying to move some people out of harm’s way while begging others to return.
Two years after Hurricane Harvey hit, Beatrice Sanders sat on the raised deck of her new home in Port Arthur, telling me that God had answered her prayers. Last...Read More
Floodplain Maps Are Outdated. This Scientist Wants to Change That.
More than half of FEMA’s flood maps rely on decades-old data. Now, a group of Texas researchers is tackling the problem with a $3 million grant and crowdsourced data.
Talk to any scientist long enough, and eventually they’ll bring up an old aphorism: all models are wrong, but some are useful. Even with better data, and more...Read More
More Highways, More Problems
Highway expansion is the Lone Star State’s status-quo solution to easing traffic—but it actually leads to more congestion and displaced communities.
Bruce Elementary School sits in the shadow of one of Houston’s countless towering, concrete overpasses. From the playground, the sound of cars zooming past an...Read More
Climate Change Will Drive Up Energy Use in Texas and Beyond
A new study found that global energy demand could rise by as much as 58 percent in the next 30 years due to climate change. But Texas’ electric grid doesn’t exactly account for this climate impact.
When the summer heat peaks in Texas, the familiar hum of air conditioners across the state grows a little louder, and the demand for electricity on the state’...Read More
