Summer Recap: Flash Floods, Internal Development, and Resistance Revivals

June - Sept. 2026 Summer Recap:
Destabilizing Planet, Solidifying Infrastructure, Resistance Revivals

From the banks of Texas’s Guadalupe to the Nepal-Tibet border, the changing climate is a global issue with the most vulnerable as collateral damage that we are collectively unprepared for

In June, a group of scientists and policy makers released a report on the July 2025 flash floods on the banks of Texas’s Guadalupe River that famously razed a girl’s summer camp (Camp Mystic) and took the lives of over a hundred people in less that 24 hours. One big takeaway? Due to the changing climate, which we are responsible for creating through global fossil fuel-burning systems, this storm broke traditionally understood barriers of the limits of flooding in central Texas.

”Several extreme factors happened all at once: The storm was exceptionally intense, and it stayed largely in one spot instead of moving on. The water landed on a steep-sloped area of Central Texas where drought may have hardened the ground, so the rainfall rushed on top of it instead of soaking into it.

Human-driven climate change was a factor threaded through the findings – warmer air holds moisture and makes storms like this one wetter, and hot summers of drought can make dirt act more like pavement, where runoff barrels across it at higher speeds.” - Read the rest of the report as covered by Maggie Quinlan in the Austin Chronicle, here.

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In late August of 2026, a landslide powered by similar flash floods - this time caused by a collapsing glacier - on a riverbank a world away in Nepal and Tibet, caused over one thousand people to lose their lives. Read more about that event through a climate lens, via Damien Gayle at The Guardian.

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Although these two catastrophic events come from vastly different regions with different geographies, different political governances, different religions, different ethnicities and cultures — they are bound by the same global system that is warming our planet past its known limits.

We at Climate Justice Texas and Climate Justice Texas Community unfortunately cannot offer a steady solution to stop the changing climate (We won’t lie to you - and anyone who says they have that steady solution singularly? Might be a grifter.) and we can never replace the loved ones who were lost to their families and friends in these extreme weather events.

All that we can do is to do our best to speak this truth into the veil of silence that permeates society on the topic of the changing climate today: what matters to us is that we continue our best efforts to start the conversation that should have already been in full-swing. Feel free to send us your thoughts on these events to us at climatejusticetexas@gmail.com!

We are grateful representatives and recipients of the J.T. Hershey Foundation “Coastal Frontline Grant” 2026!
+ We established a new fiscal sponsorship with Occidental Arts & Ecology Center
+ We brought on new, diverse board (project support committee) members

Thank you infinitely to the Jacob and Terese Hershey Foundation for supporting our youth-focused grassroots, frontline efforts along the Gulf Coast, as well as to the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center for providing us with helpful internal infrastructure development and support as our fiscal sponsor for Climate Justice Texas Community.

We also want to extend thanks to our new project support committee members for CJTC, who will will not be explicitly naming at this time to protect their identities as organizations that acknowledge environmental justice and climate justice at this moment are being targeted at federal and state levels of governance.

This grant and solidifying infrastructure will allow us to focus 2026-2027 on further financial development and power-building for our organization.

Read more about the other grant recipients: here.

Valarie Flores represents CJT at BRIDGE Movements Conference 2026

Our Director of Communications, Valarie, attended the Bridge Movements Conference for 2026 and had this to say: "We are all people from different backgrounds and experiences but we gather and share our stories in confidence that everyone just wants the same thing that you do - a life that is kind to everyone."

Thank you to Bridge Movements for bringing together the amazing people we had the pleasure to meet with at the 2026 conference. We can't wait to collaborate with the organizations that we met at the event to help build a better path forward for every person in Texas.

Climate Justice Texas Community joins “Spirit of Woodstock” revival in Lake Charles, Louisiana via Concerned Citizens of Lake Charles, Habitat Recovery Project, and Gulf Rising

The children! They love us! Although our original focus was on organizing for the 18-35 demographic, our “Everywhere, Everyday Earth Day” program seems to be really popular among the K-12 crowd. As a result, we (our Executive Director, Ariana Akbari) were swarmed with a delightful group of kids at the Concerned Citizens of Lake Charles Coalition “Spirit of Woodstock” revival event in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

We are trying to figure out how best to partner with schools in Southeast Texas, as well as with community-interested organizations and businesses, to offer prizes and support for a scalable “original Earth Day poster” competition that returns the imagery and conversation around the environment back to the iconography that created sweeping reforms across the United States in the 1970s.

Than you to our friends in Southwest Louisiana for including us! Learn more about Habitat Recovery Project here and Gulf Rising here.

Climate Justice Texas joins coalition with Southeast Texas Impact Initiative for Jefferson County “Get Out the Vote” Event

Climate Justice Texas was happy to join a coalition of community-focused organizations for their September 16, 2026 “Get out the Vote” event, which encourages voter engagement in Jefferson County, Texas. Read more about SETX Impact here.

We are still looking at ways to integrate our knowledge and work into civic engagement and civic education. If you have ideas for that, please drop us a line! @climatejusticetexas

LOOKING FORWARD:

National News Story + Research Study
We partnered on a research study regarding a toxic chemical in the region and new EPA guidelines. It’s currently “Top Secret” - but we will share it with you when we can.

Growing our Volunteer Base with College Students
We are working with local universities to increase our volunteer and engagement base + creating a definable "job set” for volunteers to do + working on a leadership pipeline for them to follow to eventually join solid positions in our organizations.

Fundraising and Development
We are looking at grants on a rolling basis and planning our fundraising outreach strategy for 2026-2027. We hope to establish working relationships with local energy companies and small businesses…wish us luck!

Establishing Replicable Programs & Curricula
We have a lot of interest from local cultural, nonprofit, and governance institutions and are trying to create “packages” for our programs, so that they can be easily accessed, taught, and participated in.

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Thank You Again! This is a team effort and we couldn’t do it without you.

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of our growth and development at Climate Justice Texas and Climate Justice Texas Community! It is because of you that we are able to begin to do the impossible - start actionable dialogue around biodiversity, the changing climate, and how young people can be better involved in their communities at the heart of the oil & gas industry in Texas, the United States, and in many ways - the world.

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Visit us: climatejusticetexas.org
Email: climatejusticetexas@gmail.com
Mailing Address: PO Box #120, Nederland, TX 77627

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June - Sept. 2026 Summer Recap:Destabilizing Planet, Solidifying Infrastructure, Resistance Revivals