Texas could have foreseen 2021 cold-wave disaster, new study concludes

A warming climate hasn’t erased the risk of cold extremes, and the Texas power grid wasn’t prepared for the frigid blast that blanketed the state in February 2021. Will it be ready for the next one?

Bob Henson

How the oil and gas industry is trying to hold US public schools hostage

Fossil fuel groups are telling New Mexicans: Let us keep drilling or your education system will collapse. The message represents a rhetorical strategy that social scientists call the “fossil fuel savior frame.”

Leanna First-Arai

As heat waves increase, green roofs could help cool Texas cities

Vegetation-covered roofs may be challenging to create and maintain, but they can be up to 40 degrees cooler than conventional roofs. They can also reduce flash flooding and provide islands of habitat for pollinators.

Melissa Gaskill

Nearly two years after Hurricane Laura, Louisiana Gulf Coast is still recovering

Abandonment, rebuilding, and uncertainty lie in wake of Louisiana’s most powerful hurricane on record. A writer-photographer found much destruction “was still exactly as it would have been the day after Laura hit.”

Charlie Randall

TCN Digest: “Now or never” – IPCC on keeping warming below dangerous levels

The U.N.-sponsored body assessed various strategies for limiting pollution-fueled climate change to avoid the worst impacts. “Carbon dioxide removal” supplements emission reductions in some of them.

Bill Dawson

Q&A: Daniel Cohan of Rice University on charting a path out of climate gridlock

In his new book, the atmospheric scientist and environmental engineering professor dives into diplomacy, technology and policy, arguing that action in all three areas is needed for progress against climate change.

Bob Henson

Millions of Texans lack home weatherization that can save energy, lives

“There’s a huge number of homes out there that cannot hold a [set temperature] for even a minute – if the AC shuts off, that house is getting hot,” a Texas energy efficiency expert said.

Amal Ahmed

Damned if they do or don’t? New eco-warrior billionaires spark debate

Some hyper-wealthy people are pledging donations to fight climate change and protect ecosystems. Is it a positive, even “game-changing” development? Or should governments constrain carbon-spewing luxuries?

John Kent

The threat ramps up for a hot, dry La Niña spring in Texas

After a record-mild autumn and a freakishly warm December, much of Texas could sink into its worst drought in a decade. That prospect is ominous – a reminder of the state’s catastrophic heat wave and drought in 2011.

BOB HENSON

As climate-linked crisis of plastic pollution grows, we keep cranking out plastic

From 1950-2017, the world produced 8.3 billion metric tons of plastics. Global production has skyrocketed – it totaled 381 million metric tons (MMT) in 2015 alone. Now, humans create 242 MMT of plastic waste each year.

Melissa Gaskill

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