Helpful Resources for Our Friends and Family
Knowledge is power!
Don’t know where or how to start learning about the
Southeast Texas environment?
Explore some of the resources we have compiled below:
Public Health Watch: Texas Petrochemicals
For six months, Public Health Watch has been reviewing TCEQ permits, analyzing air-quality and census data and talking to scientific experts, advocates, elected officials, industry representatives and residents of Harris and Jefferson counties to try to capture the scope and potential health consequences of the petrochemical buildout. Here are 13 scenes from that buildout!
ProPublica ToxicMap
A nonprofit newsroom called ProPublica used data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2014-2018 to create a user-friendly map of air quality across the US. They identify more than 1,000 toxic hot spots and found that an estimated 250,000 people living in them are likely exposed to levels of toxic chemicals that increase their cancer risk. You can use this map to search for your own address!
NASA Study: Plants that Clean Your Air
A 1989 NASA study to see which indoor plants help to clean the air inside your home. Many things, like your furniture, your paint, your carpets, etc etc… can release toxic chemicals inside of your house can release. These plants will absorb those toxins, and make your air cleaner!
Texas Legacy Project: Big Thicket Heroes
The Conservation History Association of Texas created the Texas Legacy Project to collect in-person history interviews — They’re part of our own inspiration for our East Texas Environmental Legacy Project! This video showcases interviews with Geraldine Watson, Maxine Johnston, and Richard Harrel — some of the original conservationists for the Big Thicket and the Neches River, known colloquially as the “Big Thicket Heroes.”
The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Legend
A history of the “Lord God Bird” - the largest of the woodpecker species and a native of the East Texas Big Thicket habitat. Although officially declared extinct fairly recently, tales of sightings of the bird have long persisted. It was last captured on video-photography in 1935.
Texas Wetland Benefits
This is an easy-to-understand resource from “Texas Aquatic Science” on all of the free ecosystem benefits of wetlands / swamplands: This highlights their importance to plants & animals, their ability to improve of water quality, act as natural flood control, and even replenish aquifers!