The Challenge of Environmental Peacemaking
Fifteen years after the release of ‘Environmental Peacemaking,’ the world is being rocked by massive displacement and increased resource stress. By Sreya Panuganti/New Security Beat As the 1990s drew to […]
Category Archives: blog
GRANT: Patagonia Seeks to Fund ‘Action-Oriented’ Environmental Campaigns
Outdoor clothing and gear company Patagonia provides grants to nonprofit organizations engaged in environmental work. The company’s environmental grant program supports small, grassroots activist organizations that have provocative direct-action agendas and are […]
Interfaith Forum Tackles Texas Water
FROM THE TAG-TEAMING INTERFAITHS TO WATER-AWARE SAN ANTONIANS (AND REGIONAL COLLABORATORS): “Water management has emerged as one of the most critical natural resource issues of our time. ‘Water is the […]
Trinity Talk: “On the Eighth Day, Transformation without Apocalypse”
It is impossible to track the parade of headlines warning of the accelerating destruction of the earth’s various life-support systems and not—at least on occasion—succumb to despair. Jørgen Randers cowrote […]
AP Crunches Global Warming Data By State
From recent AP report analyzing climate trends in the Lower 48: The United States is warming fastest in the Southwest and Northeast, an analysis of climate data shows. In Texas, […]
‘Water Activists’ Pushing Back Against Growth, Bad Planning
File under: WTF were we thinking passing Prop 6? Gary Cheatwood grew up near the town of Cuthand, in far northeast Texas, and he always found peace along the wooded […]
Love The Bees? Meet Bayer
San Antonio showed up for this international march against Monsanto last year (including this adorable couple marching for the bees). I wonder if they will show up to meet Bayer, […]
Earthquakes & Fracking: By The Numbers
Earthquakes have been linked to hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” for years now. To put it simply, the injection of millions upon millions of gallons of waste fluids from fracking operations […]
Texas Prop 6: Water Plan Big On Pipes & Cronyism, But Low On Innovation
Though being aggressively sold as the best way to secure adequate water supplies for Texas’ future, Prop 6, to be voted on in Texas on November 5, would fund a […]
Texas Prop 6: Loved by Dow, The Koch Brothers, And The Sierra Club
After more than a decade of virtually ignoring Texas’ growing water infrastructure needs, Rick Perry is guns a-blazing for Prop 6, a plan, if approved by voters on November 5, […]
Explosive New Brunswick Protest Likely To Charge International Anti-Fracking Actions
For months, indigenous groups and their allies have been peacefully protesting plans by Houston-based Southwestern Energy to use seismic trucks to hunt for potential fracking sites in New Brunswick, Canada, […]
Mi’kmaq Warrior Society Shuts Down Houston Fracking Company
“Even the corporate monsters are envious of what we have, because we have all the love…” More information at Halifax Media Co-op.
Margo Tamez, Environmentalism Failures, and Indigenous Dignity
Climate action in the U.S. will not come from some mass conversion of the largely white middle-class deniers, whose representatives even now hold the nation hostage in hopes of preventing […]
SXSW ECO: ‘Climate Wise Women’ Hold Key To A Just Climate Movement
Prior to 2007, life in Constance Okollet’s small Ugandan village was tranquil. It was, as she told a gathering at SXSW ECO in Austin on Tuesday, an “easy” life. “We […]
Attendees At Austin Climate Symposium Hear Scientist’s Call To Action
Texas has a tough climate. Throughout human habitation here, people have regularly suffered through extended periods of drought followed by violent flooding and storms. But, with all things being equal, […]
Solar Must Power 10 Percent Of World Needs By 2025
Despite the U.S.’s failure to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol all these years, many U.S. cities have pledged to chart a course for 20-percent renewable power by 2020. However, […]
IPCC: Humans Wrecking The Planet; Humans: /Shrug/
The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report’s summary for policy makers (pdf) released today — the first installment of the UN-affiliated body’s fifth report — is in many ways exactly […]
‘Dirty’ Deely Coal Plant Explosion Punctuates Rate-Hike Debate In SA
An explosion at a San Antonio power plant this week either bolstered the utility’s case for rate hikes to keep up with infrastructure maintenance demands or those of some critics […]
CPS Energy Rate-Hike Hearing, Climate Change, & Keystone XL Protest
Upcoming and imminent events related to the sustainable path in San Antonio… Tonight: Public hearing on CPS Energy’s proposed rate hike The first in what is likely to be a […]
South Texas Project One Of The Most Vulnerable U.S. Nuclear Reactors
Years ago I had a semi-public disagreement (as much as Twitter snipes can be considered “public”) with another SA writer about what I considered the San Antonio Express-News‘ failure to consider worst-case […]
Lamar Smith, Abused Unicorns, & Denialism’s Bloody History
When Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was published in 1962, it was clear to anyone who looked closely that the widespread and indiscriminate spraying of pesticides like DDT was doing more […]
Fracking Texas, Recycling ‘Flowback,’ & Water Contamination
Billions of gallons of water are wasted each year to fracture shale formations around the country and free trapped oil and gas. After the water is shot down a well, […]
San Antonio: Bring This Film To The Alamo Drafthouse
Dear Greater San Antonio residents: I just received notice via email that this film will be shown at the Westlakes Alamo Drafthouse at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 5 — if […]
Clean Water Act Settlement Follows San Antonio Water System CEO Bonus
Yesterday, the SAWS Board of Directors agreed to give its CEO, Robert Puente, a $72,000 “performance award” on top of his annual $325,187 salary. The bonus was given in part for his leadership […]
Border Walls As Murder: On Climate Change, Migration, & Misdirection
Back in 2010, I wrote of the potential of sustained ignorance about climate change to become so willful that it “becomes criminal.” Back then Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott was only […]
Border Wall Efforts Resisted By Retired Border Patrol Association (& Nature)
I know folks in Texas have had their attention diverted of late by Perry y Co.’s war on reproductive rights, but the goings-on in our Texas Capitol’s roiling rotunda haven’t […]
Climate Change To Cause More Energy Breakdowns: Solar & Energy Security
I’m wagering that only the most determined readers — those already committed to social justice and the rapid transformation of our energy system — found their way to the other […]
Fracking the Eagle Ford Poses Serious Air-Quality Challenge for San Antonio
You can call it bragging rights. For years, San Antonio policy makers and elected leaders have made a lot of hay out of the fact that San Antonio was one […]
Houston Doctor Honored by Obama as a ‘Champion’ of Climate Change Education
One of Texas’ own was honored by the White House this week as one of 11 “champions of change.” Climate change education, more specifically, in this case. According to NBC […]
Coal as ‘Savior’? Sins of Omission Cloud the Story of Big Brown’s Town
“Dread,” read the headline about the East Texas coal belt and proposed federal climate regulations. Finally, I thought. Finally an appropriate response from the coal industry. Obama insists new climate […]
Border Wall: Which Side (Of The Fence) Are You On?
It’s been five years since I traveled the Rio Grande across Texas for my project, Muro del Odio, on the then proposed border wall. Thankfully others continue to fight the wall and […]
Martinez Creek Sewer Line May Limit Green Makeover Of Westside Creeks
Decades after channelizing vast lengths of San Antonio’s rivers and creeks as means of controlling floodwaters, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers engaged with the City of San Antonio and […]
San Antonio’s Poor Clean-tech Ranking Due to “Jockeying,” Lost Data Set
San Antonio’s standing nationally on the clean-tech scene could be better. But for a newcomer on the scene being ranked 42 among U.S. cities is still commendable, according to Bryce […]
West Fertilizer Explosion Death Toll A Rolling Target
I have to credit a much-overlooked story from the Dallas Morning News for pointing my nose back to West this week (which, in return, revealed an uncomfortable pattern of stack failures […]
Conservation and Desalination: An Alternative Prescription For Texas Water Management
The nation needs $384.2 billion dollars in water infrastructure and development to meet its needs for clean drinking water, according to a recent EPA report to Congress. The figure reflects the […]
Governor Perry Vetoes Hard-Right Endangered Species Bill
It was an endangered-species bill seemingly made in red-state heaven. The economic engine of Texas first, the myriad unique creatures fashioned by the God of the Bible second (complete with […]
