public health - Deceleration

Growing Clean Energy Investments and Green Spaces Critical to Protecting Public Health, Panelists Say

Medical professionals, advocates, and policy experts from San Antonio, Texas, share recent successes, challenges, and urge movement to keep residents safe from high heat and punishing pollution.

By Greg Harman

/ 9 Oct 2025

Growing Clean Energy Investments and Green Spaces Critical to Protecting Public Health, Panelists Say

Toxic Tour Highlights Environmental Justice Struggles on San Antonio’s South Side

A coalition of organizations led residents and media across San Antonio’s ‘red line of inequity,’ spotlighting the overwhelming burden of polluting industries that persist south of Highway 90.

By Marisol Cortez

/ 27 Aug 2025

Toxic Tour Highlights Environmental Justice Struggles on San Antonio’s South Side

‘All Hell Breaks Loose’: How Big Oil Ruined a Small Texas Town

The Texas oil export boom has left Coastal Bend residents in harm’s way. A rainbow coalition is facing an uphill battle to compel the enforcement of environmental regulations, to mixed results. Can they save themselves before it’s too late?

By Alex Ip

/ 24 May 2025

‘All Hell Breaks Loose’: How Big Oil Ruined a Small Texas Town

San Antonio Council Members Call for Tracking of Extreme Heat’s Impact on Residents

Advocates say the effort would begin repairing a system that fails to account for heat-related deaths across the community, a prerequisite for preventing needless suffering and loss of life. But Bexar County’s partnership remains uncertain.

By Greg Harman

/ 24 Apr 2025

San Antonio Council Members Call for Tracking of Extreme Heat’s Impact on Residents

How to Save Lives During This Coming Summer’s Heat Waves

After major cuts at FEMA and the National Weather Service, the role of local governments in protecting people from dangerous weather is growing even more important.

By Yale Climate Connections

/ 19 Apr 2025

How to Save Lives During This Coming Summer’s Heat Waves

Texas ‘Mask Blocs’ Struggle to Fill COVID-19 Health Gaps as Federal and State Attacks Ramp Up

Volunteer- and anarchist-led groups are working overtime to keep their communities safe from COVID-19 even as Texas lawmakers debate a ban on masks and a warming planet promises more pandemics on the way.

By Kit O’Connell

/ 9 Apr 2025

Texas ‘Mask Blocs’ Struggle to Fill COVID-19 Health Gaps as Federal and State Attacks Ramp Up

Messages from Jess’s Last Days—A Social Autopsy

A close reading of the last week of Jessica Witzel’s life reveals predictable failures by public agencies, facilitated by the dehumanization that housed residents often direct at their unhoused neighbors. It also reveals possibilities for neighbors banding together to meet all residents’ ‘true level

By Marisol Cortez

/ 16 Jan 2025

Messages from Jess’s Last Days—A Social Autopsy

Across Texas, High Fluoride Levels Are a Rising Concern

From the High Plains to Central Texas, public water supplies and unregulated wells serving several thousands of residents contain levels of fluoride some experts say could be harmful to fetal brain development.

By Undark

/ 18 May 2024

Across Texas, High Fluoride Levels Are a Rising Concern

Displaced to Death: Encampment Sweeps Increase Death Rates Among the Unhoused

Abatements, or “sweeps,” of unhoused communities results in thousands of unnecessary deaths every year in the United States, a former City of San Antonio outreach worker writes.

By Nikketa Burges

/ 17 May 2024

Displaced to Death: Encampment Sweeps Increase Death Rates Among the Unhoused

VideoVIDEO: Heat Emergency—A Forum on Extreme Heat, Public Health, & Community Response

Public health experts and community workers convened this week at Deceleration’s ‘Heat Emergency’ forum to connect the dots between extreme heat’s causes, local impacts, and how best to interrupt the gathering crisis and (hopefully) save some lives.

By Greg Harman

/ 19 Apr 2024

VideoVIDEO: Heat Emergency—A Forum on Extreme Heat, Public Health, & Community Response

Take Action: ‘Heat Emergency’ Event Intends to Reduce Suffering, Highlight Solutions

Deceleration is assembling a panel of public health and community experts to lead a community conversation about the challenges of climate-driven extreme heat.

By Greg Harman

/ 29 Mar 2024

Take Action: ‘Heat Emergency’ Event Intends to Reduce Suffering, Highlight Solutions

Life Around Gulf Coast Gas Export Terminals Marked by Explosions, Alarms, and Secrecy

As liquefied natural gas terminals grow exponentially along the U.S. Gulf Coast, experts raise alarm on low-risk, high-consequence events.

By Pam Radtke

/ 15 Mar 2024

Life Around Gulf Coast Gas Export Terminals Marked by Explosions, Alarms, and Secrecy