Environment
Beautiful Ruins: ‘Anthropocene’ Is a Sobering Ecological Prophecy
If a Glacier Melts in the Arctic, the Texas Coast Feels It
A Q&A with the two Rice University anthropologists who will dedicate the world’s first memorial to a glacier lost to climate change.
One of the many casualties of unchecked climate change is Arctic ice. Each year, the ice seasonally melts, but it has recently been receding faster in the summe...Read More
TCEQ Report Could Pave the Way for Chemical Plants to Emit More Hazardous Air Pollutants
A new assessment from the agency downplays the risks of ethylene oxide, a known carcinogen.
When the wind blows across Port Arthur, a predominantly African American city on the Gulf Coast, it’s likely carrying toxic gasses like carbon monoxide, sulfu...Read More
Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston
Chris Qualls, 39, works as a deckhand on Ed Machaceh’s oyster boat off the coast of Palacios. I photographed him as part of a project on the Gulf of Mexico’...Read More
Mosquitoes Are Bad. So Are the Chemicals Some Texas Cities Are Using to Kill Them.
As an impressively wet Texas spring turns into summer, mosquitoes are coming to a neighborhood near you. Cities aim to eradicate the pesky insects, but at what cost?
Mosquitoes suck. And with all the rain that’s inundated Texas this year — many parts of the state have blown past their average rainfall amounts — mosquit...Read More
Without Transmission Lines, Renewable Energy Still has a Long Way to Go — Literally
In Superpower, author Russell Gold tells the story of a Houston businessman’s ambitious plan to transform the electric grid.
If you want to understand the future of renewable energy, look to Texas. That’s the argument Russell Gold makes in his new book Superpower: One Man’s Quest ...Read More
Nurdle by Nurdle, Citizens Took on A Billion-Dollar Plastic Company — and Won
A federal judge ruled that a “serial” polluter in Lavaca Bay can face more than $100 million in penalties.
A federal judge ruled last Thursday that Formosa Plastics, a petrochemical company outside Port Lavaca, can be held liable for violating state and federal water...Read More
Nearly 500,000 Texans Live in Communities with Contaminated Groundwater. Lawmakers Aren’t Doing Much About It.
Despite growing national concern about the health effects of “forever chemicals,” the state’s Congressional delegation has barely made a peep.
Even if they don’t kill you, they’ll definitely outlast you. Texans living near seven military sites discovered last year that their groundwater is heavily ...Read More
‘All it Took was 25 Years’: Legislature Ponies Up Cash for Underfunded Texas Parks
After two decades of looting state park funding, lawmakers appropriated nearly $350 million this session, greenlit development of a new state park and gave voters a chance to maintain a long-term source.
Texas state parks have been a convenient piggy bank for the Legislature whenever money was short elsewhere, but this session they got their due. Lawmakers put m...Read More
Carbon Sequestration Isn’t The Long-Term Solution. Is it a Short-Term One?
Experts have long debated the efficacy of capturing and storing carbon underground to reduce emissions. Now, in North Texas, oil and gas companies are getting in on the game.
– by Sammy Feldblum May 15, 2019 The Farnsworth Unit Oil Field is a small oil patch in North Texas’s Anadarko Basin, just south of where the skinny Okla...Read More
