Texas

Critical List: Climate change is happening (no, really!); the gas industry has some weird ideas

A Berkeley scientist who was once critical of climate science did an independent study that confirmed that climate change is happening and that common claims from skeptics are totally spurious. Skeptics are still skeptical.

Three-quarters of Americans think that the government should push harder on developing clean energy.

Shocker: The government also invested in electric cars and some of them were not perfect, i.e., THIS IS THE NEXT SOLYNDRA.

Natural gas companies don't understand why the EPA would want to make rules about fracking wastewater disposal: "We'll do it in a responsible way! Well, at least, we do now, after the New York Times revealed that we've just been dumping it into a river! But we'll do better! Honest!"

Perry and Paul were for energy subsidies before they were against them

Texas Republicans hate federal energy subsidies. Unless, of course, those energy subsidies are going to Texas! Both presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Texas Rep. Ron Paul pleaded with the energy department in 2008 for a loan guarantee. The project they were supporting was a nuclear facility. (Clean energy!)

Here is what Perry had to say about energy subsidies this Tuesday:

Critical List: U.S. solar files complaint against China; crayon sculpture melts in Texas heat

American solar companies filed a trade complaint against China for dumping cheap solar panels in the U.S. market.

California could pass cap-and-trade.

Adrian Grenier from Entourage is opening a pop-up gallery in L.A. that focuses on sustainable living.

Watch a dust cloud engulf Texas

Holy moly. Lubbock, Texas, is really seeing the effects of its record-breaking drought. Is this another indicator of the Southwest becoming a new Dust Bowl? At any rate, it's super amazing/weird/pants-wettingly scary to watch.

Critical List: Texas drought creating baby animal shortage; Keystone XL doc on Oscar shortlist

The Texas drought has meant fewer births of adorable baby animals. Maybe the new climate lobby can include all of the internet.

Also joining the climate fight: yuppies and freelancers. Starbucks is worried about the future of its business model, as rising temperatures threaten coffee crops.

Democrats aren't the only ones who back clean energy projects that don't end up saving the world. Orrin Hatch, for instance, backed a company trying to develop a hybrid Hummer, which collapsed under the weight of its own irony.

China wants to dominate the global wind-turbine market, as well as the solar market.

Texas tries to censor climate change information

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is learning the hard way that politicizing a government report is much, much harder after you've hired a reputable and principled scientist to write it. John Anderson, the author of the agency's report on Texas' Galveston Bay, says the agency removed references to humans' contributions to climate change. Anderson and the research center that gave him the assignment are fighting against the release of the edited report.

Texas aims to pollute the nation

It almost seems like Texas is proud of the fact that it has some of the worst air quality in the nation.  The state recently filed yet another lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — bringing the total number of recent lawsuits to more than 10 — claiming in part that Texas should not […]

Critical List: Green jobs program flounders; India calls Monsanto out on biopiracy

Oof. Only 10 percent of people the Labor Department trained for green jobs have found work.

Using solar energy to extract oil must be the ultimate example of greenwashing.

In Afghanistan, networking generators together can relieve 7,900 fuel trucks of their duties and keep soldiers from risking their lives to bring oil into the country.

These hairy crazy ants are invading America and they do not screw around

Start playing the video above, and after you're suitably grossed out by the close-ups, skip to about 0:45. These are insects called hairy crazy ants -- that is what they’re really called -- and they are terrifying. How do they move that fast? 

These guys are invading the American South. They are called hairy, because their bellies are hairy. They are called crazy, because they move crazy fast, and also they are crazy with nothing to lose. And they're hard to kill.