A year has passed since Hurricane Ike slammed into Galveston, but my hometown is still reeling from a storm without end.
Environment
More than 300 million trees died in Texas in 2011 due to extreme drought conditions
Three Texas metropolitan areas landed on Travel + Leisure's list of America's dirtiest cities.
A global helium shortage has U.S. senators looking at new legislation to preserve the resources coming out of federal reserves near Amarillo.
Land Commisioner Jerry Patterson, former Galveston legislator A.R. Schwartz, and TEXAS MONTHLY's Paul Burka all blast the Texas Supreme Court for last week's ruling.
For more than 75 years, rice farmers in Matagorda County and elsewhere along the Gulf have shared the waters of the Colorado River with urban residents in the Hill Country. But with city centers booming and an almost-certain drought ahead, the state is being forced to choose between a water-intensive crop and a water-intensive population.
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation just released its "Spring Allergy Capitals" survey, which put McAllen at number two and San Antonio at number nine.
The Republican congressman from Tyler says an oil pipeline radiates heat, making it a popular "date" destination for caribou.
Columbia Packing Co., a meatpacking plant in Dallas's Oak Cliff neighborhood, has been accused of dumping pig blood into Cedar Creek, which feeds into the Trinity River.
The Texas Tech atmospheric climate scientist who wrote a chapter on climate change for Newt Gingrich's forthcoming book was shocked to learn the GOP hopeful had scrapped her contribution.
It was a bad year to be a tree in Texas. The drought alone claimed half a billion trees, and now eminent domain threatens a 100-year-old oak planted by one of the founders of League City.
The drought leaves nothing untouched. This week the ongoing drought impacts the state’s groundwater, state parks, and horses.
From Abilene to El Paso to Amarillo, see photos of the snow that lightly coated North and West Texas.
It will be remembered as the year of smoke and devastation, as drought-fueled flames wreaked unprecedented havoc across Texas, from Bastrop County to Possum Kingdom. A photographic and oral history of the 2011 wildfires.
No state has defied the federal government’s environmental regulations more fiercely than Texas, and no governor has been more outspoken about the “job-killing” policies of the EPA than Rick Perry. But does that mean we can all breathe easy?
The senior editor on why Texas has taken the lead in fighting new EPA air pollution regulations and what will become the fuel of choice for the next generation of power plants in Texas and around the country.
The drought leaves nothing untouched. This week the ongoing drought impacts the state’s Christmas tree production, grapes, quail, and peanut butter sandwiches.
Summer's over, but the drought may never be, and it's affecting everything from tourism to pecan pie to horse welfare.
This blistering summer has left Texas drier than a piece of gas station jerky. It was so hot that planes couldn’t take off from airports and train tracks were bent out of shape. And while Governor Rick Perry prayed for a downpour to end the drought, officials in Llano turned…
As the drought tightens its grip on Texas, its effects are being felt everywhere, from rivers to reservoirs to the formerly verdant lawns of Midland.
The Texas Tribune reporter on writing about the drought, learning about landscaping trends in Midland, and recognizing just how precious water is.
Donna Shaver on finding a nest, sleeping at the office during hatching season, and dedicating her career to saving sea turtles.
Especially in Texas, the fight over carbon restrictions might make health care reform look like, well, a tea party.
Green has always been associated with money (or that queasy feeling you get on a turbulent airplane ride). But only recently has it become known as a social movement unto itself. There has been such a strong push to “go green” that companies are doing everything they can to go…
When T. Boone Pickens launched his Pickens Plan last summer, crude oil was at $136 a barrel. Now, with crude at or below $40, does anyone care anymore about what Pickens has to say?
Texas Monthly talks with two online energy experts concerning peak oil and the future of energy demand.
In summer months, Houstonians are drinking ice cold . . . toilet water. Courtesy of Dallas.
Texas has the country’s most precise state water plan. So how is it that every one of our major cities is still on track to run dry in the next fifty years?
Al Gore may be the public face of climate change, but all around the world, researchers are toiling in semi-obscurity to deepen our understanding of the challenge it poses. One of these is McCarl, a Texas A&M University professor who has spent the past twenty years studying the potential effects…
Here’s a convenient truth for you: All those greenhouse gases polluting the atmosphere—the result of burning and combusting oil and gas and coal—can simply go back where they came from, and the environment, not to mention the world, will be better and cleaner for it. That’s the theory behind the…
Long before concepts like “green building” and “sustainability” were fashionable, this husband-and-wife team envisioned a future in which architectural design and renewable resources worked together. The nonprofit Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, which they co-direct, has collaborated on projects as wide-ranging as the eco-friendly renovation of the Pentagon to…
Sewerage is the cornerstone of civilization, the sine qua non of urban life, and the best possible window into how we live, what we eat, and who we are.
Facing an energy crisis, Texas is on the verge of a solution that will belch about five billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in the next forty years. Breathe deeply—while you still can.
How the fire to end all fires obliterated Ringgold—and how residents of the tiny North Texas town are putting their lives back together.
To hear John Poindexter tell it, he’s one of the good guys—a faithful steward of his West Texas land and therefore a worthy bidder for 46,000 acres of Big Bend Ranch State Park. But sometimes having your heart in the right place simply isn’t enough.
Why buying a beach house in Galveston may not be the best long-term investment.
Why the mighty Rio Grande isn't so mighty anymore: a twisted tale of international politics, water rights, and environmental reality (with a drought thrown in for good measure).
When the City of Marshall wanted to pump millions of gallons of water out of Caddo Lake and sell them to the highest bidder, the state said, "Sure." Residents of Karnack, Uncertain, and other tiny northeast Texas towns said, "Hell, no." Guess who prevailed (for now)?
A kayaking trip offers close encounters with the ecosystem of the wetlands near Port Aransas, where still waters run shallow.
A new ad campaign hopes to get drivers to stop littering by getting up-close and personal with trash.
Thirty years ago J. David Bamberger bought "the worst piece of land in Blanco County," then cleared the cedar and planted native trees and grasses. Today his ranch is a haven for birders, environmentalists, and students and he is a revered guru of land stewardship.
Laugh not, wretch, at the man in the tights: Twenty-five years after George Coulam founded the Texas Renaissance Festival, it hath been a big success.
How the fight over a toxic waste dump has changed the lives of three West Texas activists.
