rio grande valley - Deceleration

Last Stand for Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge?

Congress repeatedly shielded the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge from the border wall. Now, construction has begun—and an irrigation district lawsuit may be the only option left to buy time for lawmakers to act.

By Gaige Davila and Texas Observer

/ 25 Sep 2026

Last Stand for Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge?

'Super Collider': Autonomous Warfare, Space Colonization, & Climate Collapse Meet in Brownsville

'Coastlines/Faultlines' correspondent Gaige Davila reflects on the horrors of development—and loss of the wild—transforming the Lower Texas Coast.

By Gaige Davila

/ 27 Mar 2026

'Super Collider': Autonomous Warfare, Space Colonization, & Climate Collapse Meet in Brownsville

'Curtains of Rain' Revisits South Texas Histories of Environmental Racism as Queer Coming-of Age Story

Our podcast interview with author Anel Flores talks Monsanto’s decades of contamination in Mission, Texas, the beauty of South Texas people and places, and fiction as a practice of healing self by writing the pain of those who have wounded us.

By Marisol Cortez

/ 24 Oct 2025

'Curtains of Rain' Revisits South Texas Histories of Environmental Racism as Queer Coming-of Age Story

ICE Abuses, Punishing Floods Show the Cesar Chavez March in the RGV is Still Necessary

Even with their communities under assault, local elected leaders rising in solidarity are hard to find.

By Gaige Davila

/ 29 Apr 2025

ICE Abuses, Punishing Floods Show the Cesar Chavez March in the RGV is Still Necessary

Elon Vs. Wild: Do Expanding SpaceX Operations Signal the End for Beloved Ocelots?

Starbase could become its own city. Elon Musk is about to be granted the keys to Boca Chica Beach. And accelerating operations at SpaceX could lead to several launches per day in the middle of the endangered ocelot’s withered territory. Efforts to protect the ocelot are more critical than ever.

By Wendee Nicole

/ 17 Apr 2025

Elon Vs. Wild: Do Expanding SpaceX Operations Signal the End for Beloved Ocelots?

One Man’s Quest to Reforest the Rio Grande Valley

The Tamaulipan thornforest once covered 1 million acres on both sides of the border with Mexico. Restoring even a fraction of it could help the region cope with the ravages of a warming world.

By Grist

/ 12 Apr 2025

One Man’s Quest to Reforest the Rio Grande Valley

Why Elon Musk’s Demand for Suffering Won’t Stop at Mars

Critics describe Elon Musk’s guiding philosophy of longtermism as primed to justify ‘atrocities.’

By Greg Harman

/ 22 Dec 2024

Why Elon Musk’s Demand for Suffering Won’t Stop at Mars

SpaceX Wastewater, LNG in the RGV, & Sustained Indigenous Resistance

Deceleration speaks with Christopher Basaldú, a member of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas and co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network

By Greg Harman

/ 12 Oct 2024

SpaceX Wastewater, LNG in the RGV, & Sustained Indigenous Resistance

DC Circuit Court Rules Against Texas LNG Projects

Environmental justice advocates and community members are celebrating this week after a D.C. Circuit Court finds federal review of two LNG projects failed their environmental analyses.

By James Courtney

/ 9 Aug 2024

DC Circuit Court Rules Against Texas LNG Projects

Scorching 2024 May Push South Texas Water Supplies to the Brink

‘Pretty scary times,’ says president of the Rio Grande Regional Water Authority with reservoirs already in decline.

By Dylan Baddour and Inside Climate News

/ 23 Jan 2024

Scorching 2024 May Push South Texas Water Supplies to the Brink

Texas Activists Took Their Fight Against a Natural Gas Project Abroad—And They’re Winning

The Texas Railroad Commission’s about-face on natural gas flaring can be partially linked to pressure from European companies concerned about Texas’ dirty gas. Amal Ahmed | Texas Observer In

By Greg Harman

/ 1 Apr 2021

Texas Activists Took Their Fight Against a Natural Gas Project Abroad—And They’re Winning

Agent Orange: Major Dump of Toxic Mission, Tx-Related Docs

Consistently, one of the most trafficked pages on Deceleration is a reprint of an article I wrote about the poisoning of the people of Gulfport, Miss., by Agent Orange chemicals

By Greg Harman

/ 13 Jan 2017

Agent Orange: Major Dump of Toxic Mission, Tx-Related Docs