Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.
As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades:
How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world:
Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:
Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.
Stop making more fucking freeways, parking lots and concrete sidewalks. Haven't we already been here before? I'm pretty sure i read an analysis years ago after the older Houston floods looking at impervious surfaces and them being the cause of these catastrophic levels of flooding.
There's a several acre paved lot near the Port of Houston that has been vacant for decades. The vegetation slowly takes it over and eventually covers the lot, only for the lot to change hands and the new owner tear out all the vegetation and lay down new pavement. Ive seen this happen 3 times over the years. Nothing ever gets done with the lot. It's not used for buildings, parking, events, nothing. Just a large patch of land that nature continuously tries to take back only to be cut down and replaced with concrete. Absolutely insane.
It’s not used for buildings, parking, events, nothing. Just a large patch of land that nature continuously tries to take back only to be cut down and replaced with concrete.
Do you know of any local policies around development, land use, and taxes? Might be if the lot is 'developed' its taxed a different rate than other land. Keeping it paved might mean "developed enough" and the dude's just squatting the rights to the property till the value goes up enough.
While this is certainly a problem in Houston and is cited in this article as such, this flooding wasn't reall in Houston, but a decent way north of the city. Huntsville is deep in the Piney Woods and not very developed. Nearby Lake Conroe left its banks, as did all the many tributaries of the San Jacinto river, which all converge further south at Lake Houston, so it left its banks too.
There was a similar flood of the San Jacinto River in 1994, where over 15,000 homes were damaged. Since then, tens of thousands of homes have been built on land that was underwater in '94. They went underwater again in '17, and now again in '24. I don't know the history before the 90s, but I suspect there are many floods of the San Jacinto on record that didn't hit the news as hard because there weren't as many people affected.
The creeks, rivers, and lakes north of Houston have always been prone to flooding, because it rains a ton and the land is flat, so the water drains slowly.
Impervious cover was a big contributor to in-town flooding during Harvey in 2017, especially in West Houston, but just like 2017, flooding north of town is more attributable to the quantity of rain that fell
Did the Super Fund Sites get drowned again?