Austin-based journalist Ari Phillips, reporting on his recent travels in Central Texas, examines the Hill Country’s famed springs as a microcosm of complex water issues facing all of the state and most of the Western U.S.

There was some ambiguity in the combined picture that emerged from the surveys regarding public opinion on the seriousness of the threats that climate change poses and what should be done about it.

Don’t have time to go through the new, 1,146-page National Climate Assessment to get an idea of what it says about Texas? TCN did it for you, locating and selecting a representative sample of pertinent graphics.

Environmentalists worked to defeat candidates dubbed “climate-change deniers,” including a Texan. National polls show more concern about climate change. And a “carbon tax” is being discussed, with Exxon-Mobil among the backers.

The organic waste on dairy farms and in landfills can yield a treasured resource – methane, main component of natural gas. David Barer examines the subject for Texas Climate News and Reporting Texas.

The biologist answered TCN’s questions about the outbreak of West Nile virus in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, explaining what scientists know – and have yet to learn – about links between climate and the mosquito-borne disease.

Still recovering from Hurricane Ike, the island city faces issues common along Texas’ perennially storm-threatened coast. Residents and officials confront interrelated natural hazards in deciding where building occurs.

Depletion of Ogallala groundwater heralds reduced irrigation. Coupled with higher projected temperatures, this will force many farmers to turn to dryland agiculture with drought-tolerant crops, one researcher predicts.

Nielsen-Gammon talked with TCN about global warming’s impacts on Texas, his support for “cheap, affordable alternative energy” and worries about climate-change skepticism, the state’s water-supply challenges and the summer weather outlook.

New federal regulations will require new coal plants to capture CO2 emissions. Will carbon-capture techniques prove to be commercially viable? Various efforts in Texas may help answer that question.