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...
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...
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...
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...
When Heidi Schmalbach was first introduced to Planet Texas 2050, she didn’t know what to expect. The project launched just a few years prior as one of three “grand challenges” undertaken by the University of Texas to solve pressing world problems in...
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...
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...
This year, The Drag’s very own Aurora Berry impressively won third place and secured $1,500 in scholarship funds for her entries “TikTok Protest” and “Let’s do the Time Warp again!” “This is a pleasant dream,” Berry said as she shares her thoughts...
I’ve been a reporter covering climate change and extreme weather in Texas for about a year now for an upcoming podcast from The Drag called “Planet Texas.” When I tell people what I do, they crinkle their foreheads and nod gravely. Older people talk...
Ana Goodwin was drawn to the empathetic way The Drag told stories rooted in journalistic integrity. She never wanted to lose the humanity in her storytelling. Goodwin, a rising journalism senior at the University of Texas at Austin, always listened...
