Cities across the state dramatically curbed water use over the last decade. Now, newcomers and first-time homeowners are causing it to spike again.
Droughts, arctic blasts, heat waves—senior editor Alex Samuels explains what the future holds for the state's notoriously chaotic climate.
Utility giant Aqua Texas pumped 66 million gallons beyond its legal limit in 2023.
An overseas nonprofit brought journalists to Port Arthur to expose their homeland to the environmental effects of our state’s fossil fuel exports.
Unfazed by extreme weather, this dangerous beauty blooms only at night.
For the second year in a row, the iconic spring-fed swimming hole has stopped flowing, the consequence of drought and overpumping.
An oil executive wants to block the South Llano River for private recreational purposes. Hill Country residents are outraged.
A Dallas billionaire says his new luxury resort in a near-pristine parcel west of Austin is a model of sustainability. The caretaker of the nature reserve next door isn’t buying it.
The proposed construction project is intended to alleviate future traffic problems, but at what cost?
Environmentalists have filed a suit looking to block Elon Musk’s company from doing what state leaders invited him to do at Boca Chica.
National Book Award finalist Domingo Martinez was optimistic about Musk and SpaceX in 2016. Now, he says, “it feels like we sold our souls.”
It's a big win for a city that often feels neglected by Austin and Washington, D.C.
The periodical, first published in 1818 and known for its simplistic and broad extended forecasts, says its largest readership is in Texas. We talked with the editor about why that might be—and what’s in store for the state this winter.
Across the state, Texans are experiencing record-high temperatures, but we might be recalling this summer fondly someday.
‘More City than Water: A Houston Flood Atlas’ brings together a team of writers, scholars, designers, and eyewitnesses from the front lines of climate change in a grand experiment.
The drought is taking a toll on our swimming holes, although a few favorites are still in good enough shape to help us handle the record heat.
At a recent expo in Houston, innovators claimed they can spare us a global catastrophe—and make billions in the process.
Patching it cost the state $1.6 million. Many others are similarly falling into disrepair, and the agencies charged with their oversight are doing nothing about them.
“Your article may be an epitaph,” the then-president of the Houston Audubon Society told the writer.
How to get the adventure and scenery without having to spend days in your kayak or canoe.
My dream of navigating through Big Bend’s stunning canyons finally came true. I just had to start a little farther downstream.
After an abandoned well began spewing toxic, salty water onto her Permian Basin land, Ashley Watt would stop at nothing to determine the cause—and to hold Chevron accountable.
As TCEQ investigates its Austin plant, the company was praised for “protecting our state’s natural resources.”
The massive facility sits along two miles of the Colorado River. Environmentalists want a say in how the development might affect the waterway.
On a remote ranch south of Alpine, Bonnie and Dick Cain have carved out their ideal lifestyle, without electricity, refrigeration, or running water.
Aggregate mining in Texas yields billions of dollars but leaves behind a pockmarked landscape.
A&M researchers say more-robust testing is needed to understand just how much human feces ends up in Gulf waters.
Researchers at Tarleton State have found an all-natural way to prevent Texans from imbibing quite so many tiny plastic particles.
Dangerous gas leaking from an abandoned well has become an issue in the colorful Railroad Commission runoff election.
The nonprofit effort will cost hundreds of millions and preserve 50,000 acres over the fragile Edwards Aquifer. Can it be done?
For years, raw sewage has overwhelmed the city’s aging wastewater infrastructure. It’s spending $725 million to try to stop that.
A toxic herbicide used in cotton fields is devastating vineyards on the High Plains, endangering the state’s $13 billion wine business. Grape farmers have banded together to fight back.
Wes Moorehead, an expert at the Texas A&M Forest Service, explains what’s happened in 2022 and what the future might hold for the state.
Cleaning crews dredged up creepy dolls, armored catfish, rental scooters, and a staggering quantity of chairs.
Turns out the Permian Basin well that's been blowing briny water 100 feet high isn't the well the Railroad Commission thought it was.
The salty water spewing high on a Crane County ranch could be a sign of a “whack-a-mole” future in the Permian Basin.
These Texans think so.
A Pecos County well has leaked noxious salt water for almost two decades. No one is taking responsibility for getting it cleaned up.
Federal agencies have long struggled to stop illegal fishing and drug smuggling in the Gulf of Mexico. In recent years, it’s only gotten worse.
North Texans Kidus Girma and Julia Paramo haven’t eaten since October 20, as they try to pressure Joe Biden to pass a reconciliation bill with large green proposals.
So is a little fish that swam along the San Marcos River.
In 2018, as national chains pledged to ditch their nonbiodegradable polystyrene cups, Whataburger said it would look into alternative materials, too. What happened?
Some of the healthiest coral communities in the world beckon off the Texas coast. Can unlikely allies save this undersea paradise?
Conservationist Adam Black roams the state looking for endangered flora, which he shares with researchers around the world.
The state's energy business has long counted on tax breaks and other largesse. Whether renewables or fossil fuels get more depends on how you do the math.
Residents of the South Texas beach town say SpaceX’s billionaire owner is ruining their “little piece of heaven.”
In announcing an ambitious renewable-energy push this week, the Biden administration highlighted a vessel under construction in Brownsville as proof of the economic opportunities of going green.
A ten-year, $205 million renovation is transforming Houston’s Memorial Park from a dense and dying thicket into a lush oasis. But is this restoring nature or replacing it?
Two major conservation funding victories could create a brighter future for Texas's public lands.
Instead of wasting time on tiresome culture wars, Texas’s political leaders ought to be thinking big. They could start by saving Houston from disaster.
