The Damage Done, a series from Capital & Main, chronicles the toll that climate change has taken across five U.S. states. Texas, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Colorado, and California all produce fossil fuel and have rich natural resources, but are losing vital resources and ecosystems. Rising seas and crude oil threaten California ports; New Mexico rivers are drying and being polluted from oilfields; coal mining contaminated a Pennsylvania river and residents are working to bring it back to life; pine trees in Colorado are dying off from pests and lack of water, increasing the risk of wildfires; and Texas ranches and cattle are threatened by decades of drought. Capital & Main, a grantee, shows the causes how it affects the people living through these slow disasters.
Below, preview one of the stories in the series about a small border town in West Texas, where ranchers and residents have been struggling with a sustained megadrought since 2000.
