Climate

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Drought, wildfires, and extreme weather — is this the new normal for Texas?

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June 29, 2012

Life By the Drop: Where Drought Meets the Sea, A Q&A With Leslie Hartman

Drought looks different along the Texas coast. When you hear the cries of seagulls and the roll of the surf you might be forgiven for thinking that nothing is wrong at all. But as last year’s drought pushed through the summer, the Colorado River brought less and less fresh water into the Gulf of Mexico and […]

June 28, 2012

Weekely Drought Update: With Record Heat, Drought Creeps Back

Last week, Texas hit a milestone in its recovery from drought: no portion of the state was any longer in the worst “exceptional” stage of drought. The news this week is not quite as good. The drought has returned to some previously drought-free parts of Texas. A greater amount of the state – seven percent, […]

Life By the Drop: Eyes of the Drought

Wyman Meinzer, the state photographer of Texas, is used to finding beauty across the Lone Star State. But during the great drought, Meinzer was faced with the question of how to document devastation and destruction. In an interview with Jake Silverstein, editor of Texas Monthly, Meinzer talks about his work putting a lens to the drought. […]

Life By the Drop: Between Hell and Texas

Last year, Wyman Meinzer got an unsettling feeling. Meinzer was raised on a ranch in West Texas and has weathered many dry spells, including the drought of record, when he was just a boy. But last spring, he started to notice unusual patterns. High winds for days on end. Temperatures much hotter than normal. Waterholes […]

June 27, 2012

Life By the Drop: When the Sky Ran Dry

While the drought we’re only now making real progress out of is still fresh in every Texan’s mind, there’s a whole generation in the state that can remember a time that was arguably more trying. The drought of record in the 1950s lasted for seven years. Imagine seven 2009s or 2011s back to back and […]

June 26, 2012

Court Upholds EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Regulations

Today a federal appeals court upheld the first ever federal regulations aimed at reducing emissions of gases blamed for global warming. The unanimous ruling came over challenges from industry groups and around a dozen states, including Texas. Environmental groups lauded the decision. In a statement released early this afternoon, the Environmental Defense Fund singled out […]

Life By the Drop: Where Do We Go From Here?

We’ve been looking at drought and water issues in Texas here as part of our new series, Life By the Drop, a collaboration with KUT News and Texas Monthly. Nate Blakeslee, a senior editor at the magazine, looks at some of the solutions on the table in his new piece, ‘Drawing Staws.’ In it, he […]

Life By the Drop: The Writing on the Wall

This report features contributions from Matt Largey and Emily Donahue of KUT News and Jake Silverstein of Texas Monthly. While last year was the worst in Texas’ recorded history, it was only the latest in a long string of dry spells that stretches back through Texas history, to a time before it was even Texas. Drought […]

June 25, 2012

Life By the Drop: High and Dry on the Highland Lakes

Earlier this year, walking along the dry river and lake beds of the Highland Lakes, you’d likely find yourself stepping on gravel, fish bones and fresh-water clam shells. After the lakes sat around sixty percent drained, water wells in the area also began to fail. That happened most noticeably in Spicewood Beach, where the Lower […]

Life By the Drop: Dry, the Beloved Country

Jake Silverstein of Texas Monthly contributed to this article. It’s a disaster unlike any other. Floods, hurricanes and earthquakes enter swiftly and destroy efficiently. But a drought doesn’t herald it’s arrival. And people usually don’t pay attention to drought until the damage is already done. For most Texans, especially those living in big cities, a […]

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