Planet Texas

In 2011, the largest wildfire in state history burned for 36 days in Bastrop, Texas – our host Aurora Berry’s hometown. Texas’ record-setting drought and high winds intensified the fire’s effects on the community. As the global average temperature rises, intensifying droughts will continue to put humans at risk of major disasters, but scientists remain hopeful.

In a two-year period, two separate hundred-year floods hit the Onion Creek and Dove Springs neighborhoods in Austin. The floods displaced hundreds of the mostly low-income residents of these neighborhoods, moving them away from the communities they called home. Climate change not only has environmental impacts – it has societal and financial impacts, too.

In January 2021, Texas was hit with a historic winter storm that overloaded the Texas power grid and left thousands without electricity, water and heat for days on end. It was a once-in-a-lifetime storm, but man-made climate change will make extreme weather events more common.

Hurricane Harvey devastated towns along the Gulf Coast in August 2017. And Texas’ biggest city, Houston, is especially vulnerable to flooding due to its bayou system and low elevation. It’s also a city whose entire way of life is intertwined with its main industry: oil and gas. Hear from families impacted by the hurricane and what citizens – and researchers – are doing to reduce carbon emissions in Texas.

The Ogallala Aquifer is the biggest aquifer in North America, and it accounts for more than 30 percent of all agriculture in the United States. And…it’s running out of water. Climate change is making the naturally hot and dry climate of the Texas Panhandle even worse. Farmers are working desperately to keep their crops alive, and the secret to survival is adaptability.

Everything’s bigger in Texas…including the natural disasters. Texans face fires, floods, hurricanes, droughts, freezes, tornadoes and more – and the thing making these big Texas disasters even bigger? Climate change. In partnership with Planet Texas 2050, this new podcast from The Drag tells stories of how major disasters affect all of us … but also how there is still hope for the future.