Climate change and boat strikes are killing right whales. Stronger speed limits could save them.

Nearly a century after we almost hunted them to extinction, fewer than 360 right whales remain. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

Apple waste, spider silk, enhanced cotton: How bio-based textiles could replace plastic in our clothing

Biomaterials companies are using new materials to create high-performance textiles — without plastic. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

You can start applying for the American Climate Corps next month

Modeled after FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression, the climate corps will employ Americans to improve the country. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

As heat becomes a national threat, who will be protected?

Extreme heat affects everyone. But in Florida, the hottest state in the country, only one group is legally protected. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

In Texas, as in California, big fires lead to big lawsuits

Electric utility Xcel is facing several lawsuits over its role in the Smokehouse Creek Fire, highlighting a growing threat to power providers. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

New report slams carbon offset project in Cambodia for violating Indigenous rights

A new report from Human Rights Watch accuses a major carbon offset project in Cambodia of evicting Indigenous peoples from their farmland. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

Pentagon tries to dodge PFAS lawsuits over a product it helped invent

The U.S. government is seeking immunity from 27 lawsuits related to a toxic firefighting foam used on military bases. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

The IRA has injected $240 billion into clean energy. It might not be enough.

An analysis of the Inflation Reduction Act's impact shows that for every $1 the government invested, the private sector spent nearly $5.50. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

The IRA has injected $240 billion into clean energy. The US still needs more.

An analysis of the bill's impact shows that for every $1 the government invested, the private sector spent nearly $5.50. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

Detergent pods are only the start of clothing’s microplastic pollution problem

A New York City bill to ban laundry pods is just one of many proposed solutions. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

Why is the idea of the Anthropocene so contentious?

The question of whether humans created a new epoch has been stirring up drama for almost 25 years. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

Many homes burned in the Texas wildfires weren’t insured, creating a steep path to recovery

Rural Texans are more than twice as likely to go without homeowners insurance than their urban peers. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

California’s polluted communities could miss out on billions under state’s flawed system

Researchers found that the state's screening tool uses a small number of health problems that could bias which communities are designated.  | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

Big Oil faces a flood of climate lawsuits — and they’re moving closer to trial

A quarter of Americans now live in cities and states taking companies to court over lying to the public. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

How changes to Hawaiʻi’s home battery program could hinder its clean energy transition

A revision in how much homeowners are paid for electricity they send to the grid could keep them from participating at all. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

How climate change primed Texas to burn

The high plains of Texas now experience 32 more days with hot, dry, and windy conditions than in the 1970s, making fire an ever-bigger threat. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

As climate change fractures communities, folklorists help stitch them back together

Even as it looks over our collective shoulder at the past, folklore can prepare us for a climate future that is in many ways already here. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

SEC will require companies to disclose emissions, with one glaring gap

The agency's new rule excludes 75% of companies' climate pollution. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

States and tribes scramble to reach Colorado River deals before election

Landmark agreements would cut big states’ water usage for decades and deliver water to the Navajo Nation. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

How this organizer is fighting the liquefied natural gas industry where she lives

The Biden administration's LNG pause won't affect projects planned in Brownsville, Texas. The community is still waging its own defense. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

Industry poisoned a vibrant Black neighborhood in Houston. Is a buyout the solution?

A once-vibrant Black neighborhood in Houston was poisoned by toxic industry pollution. Is a buyout the solution? | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

A new EU ecocide law ‘marks the end of impunity for environmental criminals’

Advocates hope that the European Union's recent move will reverberate beyond Europe’s borders. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

Solar hits a renewable energy milestone not seen since WWII

With supply chains finally open, solar arrays provided 53 percent of the nation's new electricity capacity last year. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

Want clean electricity? These are the overlooked elected officials that get to decide.

As the Georgia Public Service Commission writes, "Very few governmental agencies have as much impact on peoples’ lives." | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

Your guide to electricity and energy policy in Georgia

From rate case to rooftop, a glossary for understanding how public service commissions work. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

Under pressure from activist investors, big brands agree to report and reduce plastics use

Shareholder advocacy groups have already won plastics-related concessions from companies including Disney, Hormel, and Choice Hotels. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

How to ‘decouple’ emissions from economic growth? These economists say you can’t.

At least, not fast enough to reach international climate targets. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

There’s a reason Exxon’s CEO says its emissions are your fault

Governments and activist investors want oil giants to trim their biggest source of emissions. Exxon sees that as a threat. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

Texas will add more grid batteries than any other state in 2024

With cheap land and a competitive market irresistible to energy storage developers, the Lone Star State will even overtake California in battery deployments this year. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

Why one Southern California city is updating its zoning code after decades of environmental issues

Residents in Pomona’s industrial zone have dealt with pollution from waste facilities, warehouses, and other polluting industries for close to a century. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

Is the USDA’s spending on “climate-smart” farming actually helping the climate?

A new report asks whether supposedly green livestock practices have proven benefits. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

Washers and dryers are about to get a whole lot more efficient

The new guidelines will save people $2.2 billion a year in utility costs and eliminate 71 million tons of planet-warming CO2 emissions. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

An invisible chemical is poisoning thousands of unsuspecting warehouse workers

Medical supply warehouses can be a significant source of cancer-causing ethylene oxide emissions. Only one state is doing anything about it. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

As ticks spread, the US is getting closer to understanding the true extent of Lyme disease

A revised CDC reporting system led to a 70 percent increase in reported cases of Lyme disease, but experts say more can be done. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 8 months ago

Who’s behind the destruction of Brazil’s Cerrado?

Some of the world's largest pension funds bet big on Brazilian farmland. Communities, and the climate, are paying the price. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 9 months ago

At least 10 states quietly own land within Indian reservations — and profit from them

Tribal climate action plans are being stymied by state-owned land within reservation borders. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 9 months ago

California towns are banning new gas stations. Big Oil is paying attention.

Some activists view the industry's response as a badge of success. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 9 months ago

How to recycle the giant magnets inside wind turbines? These scientists have a few ideas.

Many turbines rely on high-demand rare-earth minerals. A new Department of Energy program aims to keep them out of landfills. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 9 months ago

The IRA will help ‘energy communities.’ But what does that mean?

Biden’s green transition could overlook towns heavily reliant upon fossil fuels for industries like steelmaking and fertilizer production. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 9 months ago

Israel’s campaign in Gaza is fueling demands to make ‘ecocide’ an international crime

The International Criminal Court can only prosecute four types of crimes. Ecocide could become the fifth. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 9 months ago

Illinois EPA must revamp its permitting process after Chicago activists file civil rights complaint

The Illinois EPA must revamp a permitting process after Chicago activists filed a civl rights complaint about pollution. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 9 months ago

Decades after the US buried nuclear waste abroad, climate change could unearth it

A new report says melting ice sheets and rising seas could disturb waste from U.S. nuclear projects in Greenland and the Marshall Islands. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 9 months ago

Sheep may soon graze under solar panels in one of Wyoming’s first ‘agrivoltaic’ projects

The elevated photovoltaic panels can actually improve grazing conditions, a novelty that could help make solar projects more land-efficient and accepted in the ranching-heavy state. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 9 months ago

Los Angeles just showed how spongy a city can be

Amid relentless rains, the city’s “sponge” infrastructure helped gather 8.6 billion gallons of water — enough to sustain over 100,000 households for a year. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 9 months ago

A geothermal energy boom could be coming to Chicago’s South Side

The key to building low-carbon infrastructure in the city? Its trademark alleys. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 9 months ago

Cash-strapped University of Arizona says climate action can wait

Activists have spent years pushing the university to divest from fossil fuels. With a $177 million deficit, that may not happen. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 9 months ago

How air pollution delayed a surge in extreme rain

Aerosol pollutants have masked the effects of global warming. Without them, the U.S. is about to get a lot wetter. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 9 months ago

Climate change is undoing decades of progress on air quality

A new report finds that one in four people in the U.S. are breathing unhealthy air as rising temperatures and bigger fires create a "climate penalty." | Continue reading


@grist.org | 9 months ago