The 10-year forecast: Drought

That’s the NY Times’s headline over this article. Here in Williston, Vt., it just rained again, another half-inch at least, with lightning and thunder accompaniment. But I can believe the climate forecast calls for drought. I once lived in Oklahoma. And before that in Texas. Both have been hit hard lately by drought.

Weather extremes worsening and global warming is cause, paper says

The authors of the paper described in this article include Dr. James Hansen of NASA. It’s on the mark.

Lizard in Southwest gets some protection, but not via the ESA

The dunes sagebrush lizard’s habitat includes parts of New Mexico and Texas, where elected officials and the oil and gas industry said endangered species status would threaten jobs. This is the same old tired line spouted by PR mouthpieces and industrial typists for years now. You can view a nice photo of this species and read more about it and the legal goings-on right here.

Don’t mess with Texas: The Keystone XL pipeline

As Congressional Republicans and Big Oil allies allies in Washington try to resuscitate the massive Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, people on the frontlines have opened a new campaign to stop the massive $7 billion project. In Texas, landowners are locking arms to fight would-be pipeline builder TransCanada over eminent domain cases that may determine where the 1700-mile project will be built. Read the whole thing here on Joe Romm’s Climate Progress blog.

Dozens of Texas plant, animal species are candidates for T-and-E listing

This is hardly a surprise. When I flew down to Houston in 1982 on a temporary duty mission from Headquarters Air Force Reserve, Robins AFB, Ga., it was plain and obvious that Texas-sized sprawl had chewed up a lot of natural land (that thing developers like to call “raw” land). That city has likely grown to four times the size it was then in the intervening years. And that’s just Houston. Yes, buckaroos, it’s all about “growth” and this is what happens from “growth.”

2011 bad year for ozone pollution in Texas

And Rick Perry, the governor of the Lone Star State, would have us elect him to do this to the entire country? Who’s he kidding? Big Oil?

March against Keystone pipeline planned

The battle continues, but the politicians in D.C. continue to hide behind the “job-creation” moniker, ignoring the frightful pollution and ugly industrialization of the American landscape the Keystone XL pipeline would bring. What a boondoggle. Here is news of the pending protest march: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/05/science/earth/march-against-pipeline-planned.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

Report highlights state of Gulf and pressing restoration need

This Associated Press piece is well written and spells out the problems in nice fashion. Saving habitat – native, natural land – is foremost among the fixes, in my view. It’s the same story here in Vermont when it comes to tackling Lake Champlain water-quality problems.

Drought harming T&E species in Texas, feds acknowledge

This article describes what is going on and why. The impact of climate change is again making itself known and no amount of praying by Gov. Rick Perry appears likely to change the situation. But go ahead on and pray, Ricky.

Rick Perry’s polluter cronies

As usual in big politics, big money from big polluters (and Big Oil, too) has and continues to play a big role in the big fortunes of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the wannabe Republican successor to Democrat Barack Obama. Read about Big Money, Big Oil, polluters and all the rest in this well-crafted muckraking piece.