Clean Start: August 1, 2011

Welcome to Clean Start, ThinkProgress Green’s morning round-up of the latest in climate and clean energy. Here is what we’re reading. What are you?

The historic Texas drought is driving bears into urban areas searching for food and water, the latest in a series of bizarre wildlife stories to come out of the deadly hot and dry weather across the nation. [Reuters]

The third-worst drought in state history has killed any hope that Texas oysters would make up for the severe losses in Mississippi and Louisiana, where the shellfish were affected by last year’s oil spill and this year’s massive flooding. [AP]

The drought raking parts of South Texas, which saw little to no relief from Tropical Storm Don which fizzled and evaporated, has gained a new surprise bumper crop of grasshoppers. [KPLC]

Floods claimed their first victim in Japan and nearly 300,000 people were urged to flee their homes as torrential rains that killed dozens on the Korean peninsula swept the country. [AFP]

A landslide triggered by torrential rain has killed four children who were playing under a cliff in western Indonesia. [AP]

Tens of thousands of famine-stricken Somali refugees were left cold and drenched after torrential rains pounded their makeshift structures in the capital, Mogadishu, on Sunday, leading to renewed appeals for aid. [Guardian]

California’s native grasses, already under pressure from invasive exotic grasses, are likely to be pushed aside even more as the climate warms, according to a new analysis from the University of California, Berkeley. [Science Daily]

July’s heat shattered records across most of the nation. [USA Today]

With the start of August, the heat wave across the Midwest and South is expected to continue, forecasters said on Sunday. [Reuters]