Drought, wildfires, and extreme weather — is this the new normal for Texas?
Researchers suspect drought is the cause of a massive fish die off in the Galveston Bay where millions of shad, also known as skipjack, have washed ashore there in recent days. They’ve been found primarily around the communities of Kemah and Seabrook. “We’ve never seen one to this scale in this location,” Texas Parks and […]
Conditions ‘Remain Dire,’ Outlook Says The drought that began in October 2010 has been the driest such period in over a century for much of West Texas, putting it on par with the drought of record in the 1950s. That’s according to a new outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and it […]
A massive new report on climate change got a lot of attention this past week. It’s message? Climate change is already happening and having an impact, and it’s going to get worse. The section of the report on Texas found that droughts, heat waves and flooding are all set to become even more extreme as […]
Thanks to all the pollen in the air, I spent the last few weeks coughing, wheezing and blowing my nose. Austin is infamous for bad allergy seasons. We have three of them: fall, winter, and spring. In the summer, it’s too hot for pollen (but the heat gives me something else to complain about). Other […]
A new federal report out today from offers a stark warning about our changing climate. As carbon dioxide reaches levels never before seen during human history, we’re already feeling the effects of climate change, and it’s likely to get worse. The National Climate Assessment is the product of hundreds of experts and scientists, organized by […]
Everyone’s waiting on El Niño, the “little boy” or “Christ Child” (since it usually shows up in the winter). This weather pattern that forms in the Pacific could end up redeeming Texas and other parts of the southwest in the form of above-average rain. All signs point to one reappearing this fall, and typically El […]
For the past decade, Americans have become more concerned about where their daily caffeine boost comes from. In fact, a new report from the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Texas says that farmers of specialty coffee, which is often environmentally-friendly, saw sales rise more than 75 percent from 2000 to 2008. “Shade-grown” coffee uses a […]
Big trees in Texas are coming into conflict with a state that can’t help keep getting bigger. They can either be cut down, built around, or, at a hefty price, they can be moved.
Texans looking for relief from the drought are eagerly anticipating the chances of an El Niño event starting this summer, which could bring much wetter conditions. But the focus should actually be on the near-term, according to Victor Murphy, climate service program manager for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Fort Worth. Murphy says that the […]
) “The Fate of Humankind Rests Upon These Genetic Resources” On a hillside in Norway near the North Pole sits a large, angular vault jutting out of the mountain. It’s an area so cold there are literally signs warning of polar-bear crossings on the roads nearby. Inside this icy vault? Nearly a million types of seeds, frozen […]
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