No topics matched your search request.
Search results for 'climate change'
Topics
Stories
How the Military is Re-thinking Energy
How’s this for a mouthful: Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy Plans and Programs. It’s basically a complicated way of saying the Defense Department official in charge of figuring out how the military uses and deploys energy in the field. That is Sharon Burke’s position, and in a recent speech at the University of […]
Rejoice! This Summer Will Likely Not Be as Hot as the Last One
Photo by Daniel Reese/KUT News Anybody who lived in Texas last summer will tell you it was hot. Really, really hot. It was the hottest summer on record statewide. Numerous cities, including Austin, Houston, and Dallas saw their heat records shattered by the high temperatures. Austin, for example, experienced 90 days of heat 100 degrees […]
Voices from the Drought: Readers Respond
Our new interactive webpage on the drought has resulted in quite a few comments from readers with their own stories and thoughts about the Texas drought. Here’s a roundup of some of those responses: What’s Being Done to Plan for a Drier Future? Many readers were concerned about planning for future droughts like the one […]
Texas Inching Out of Extreme Drought (For Now)
It’s Thursday, which means a new drought monitor has been released from the National Drought Mitigation Center, and there’s some good news as Texas heads into the new year: 32 percent of the state is in the highest level of drought, “exceptional,” down from 39 percent just last week and 86 percent of Texas three […]
5 Wacky Ways to Fix the Planet
With heat, tornadoes, drought, fires, extreme weather and flooding, the climate has certainly caught the world’s attention in 2011. While scientists debate just how much the world is warming and how much of that has to do with human impact, others are taking it upon themselves to reverse the changes through technology. Here are five […]
5 Things You Can Do Right Now to Heat Up Your Home
It’s hard to believe after survivng the epic summer of 2011, but winter is here. Today saw the first hard freeze of the winter season in Central Texas, where the ground becomes frozen solid and plants die. And folks in Houston (freezing) and Dallas (also freezing) didn’t have it any easier this morning. While you may have […]
How the Texas Drought Compares to the Rest of the World
With the current drought now more or less at the one-year mark and breaking records along the way, many are wondering if it will ever end. Another question is, how unique is this drought to Texas and the surrounding region? Researchers at the University College London’s Department of Space and Climate Physics have put together […]
Texas Building Energy Performance Standards
With its large population and energy-intensive economy, Texas leads the nation in energy consumption, accounting for more than one-tenth of total U.S. energy use. Buildings alone account for 40 percent of total energy usage and 70 percent of electric power use. The State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) enforces Texas Building Energy Efficiency Performance Standards to ensure buildings […]
What Is The Environmental Defense Fund?
The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is a nonprofit environmental advocacy group that first organized in 1967 after the pesticide DDT was discovered to be threatening wildlife on Long Island, New York. The group is known for its work on issues such as global warming, ecosystem restoration, oceans and human health. It is a nonpartisan organization, […]
Plugging In To The Electric Car Scene In Texas
An electric car, (also known as an electric vehicle or an EV), is powered by an electric motor instead of a gasoline engine. Unlike hybrid cars, EVs draw power from their rechargeable batteries and are designed to travel approximately 100 miles per charge. EVs offer numerous environmental and economic benefits. Electric cars are: Energy efficient. Electric motors convert 75% […]