What Election Day looked like for voters in hurricane-battered communities across Florida and North Carolina

Voters showed up in droves to cast their ballots, navigating last-minute polling changes spurred by hurricanes Helene and Milton. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 18 days ago

A stormy Election Day in southwest Louisiana

In Lake Charles, voters spoke about how past hurricanes have influenced their politics | Continue reading


@grist.org | 18 days ago

Election Day in the disaster zone

Hello, and welcome to our special Election Day edition of State of Emergency. I’m Zoya Teirstein, and today I’m reporting from rainy Buncombe County, North Carolina. I spent the morning talking to voters at the Fairview Public Library — one of 17 temporary polling sites in the co … | Continue reading


@grist.org | 18 days ago

This California congressman is betting the farm on water

Republican David Valadao has held down his blue district by fighting for thirsty farms. But with control of Congress on the line, his luck may be running out. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 18 days ago

A Q&A with Indigenous leader Nemonte Nenquimo who fought oil drilling in the Amazon — and won

Her new book chronicles her life: "The story dies when no one tells it." | Continue reading


@grist.org | 18 days ago

Scientists found a new ally in the fight to clean up CO2 emissions: ‘Chonkus’

A newly discovered bacterium could help humans deal with climate change — if scientists can figure out how to crack open its DNA. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 18 days ago

Scientists found a new ally in the fight to clean up CO2 emissions: ‘Chonkus’

A newly discovered bacterium could help humans deal with climate change — if scientists can figure out how to crack open its DNA. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 18 days ago

The race for clean energy is local

A couple hundred overlooked public officials control the U.S. power grid — and some of them are on your ballots. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 19 days ago

LA County sues Pepsi and Coke over plastic pollution and false advertising

The lawsuit says the companies knew the limitations of plastics recycling but promoted it anyway. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 19 days ago

On the ballot in your state: A guide to 2024’s climate voter referendums

Voters in nearly a dozen states will vote on measures that affect energy, water, climate disasters, and more. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 19 days ago

Utility regulators take millions from industries they oversee. What could go wrong?

A Floodlight analysis in nine of the 10 states that elect public utility commissioners found that more than a third of their contributions of $250 and up are from fossil fuel and electric utility interests — more than $13.5 million in all. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 20 days ago

Voter turnout is surging in the key swing states hammered by Hurricane Helene

What record early voting in Georgia and North Carolina says about the storm and the stakes of the election. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 21 days ago

Voter turnout is surging in the key swing states hammered by Hurricane Helene

What record early voting in Georgia and North Carolina says about the storm and the stakes of the election. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 21 days ago

Climate-fueled extreme weather is hiking up car insurance rates

Home insurers have raised premiums after extreme weather events. Now car insurers in the U.S. are doing the same thing. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 21 days ago

How climate voters could swing the presidential election

In battleground states like Georgia, tens of thousands of climate-conscious voters who didn't show up in 2020 have already cast their ballots. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 22 days ago

The Department of Energy wants to pay companies to make greener solar panels

Only six panels on the market meet the government's sustainability standards — but that number could soon grow. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 22 days ago

The next president could address the plastics crisis — or worsen it. Here’s how.

Advocacy groups say we’re at a “key moment” to reduce plastic production and protect communities from chemicals. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 22 days ago

San Francisco’s surprisingly difficult quest to turn a century-old highway into a park

A ballot measure would permanently close a coastal highway to private vehicles. If the City by the Bay can't do it, who can? | Continue reading


@grist.org | 23 days ago

A ‘first step’ toward landback: Tribes call for three new monuments

If approved, these national monuments would protect around 1 million acres. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 23 days ago

This disaster relief nonprofit is pioneering a clean energy alternative to noisy, polluting generators

The Footprint Project wants to create a solar-powered microgrid “lending library” to deploy during disaster recovery efforts to reduce reliance on generators, which increase air pollution and are costly to run. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 24 days ago

The link between climate disasters and authoritarian regimes

Hello, and welcome back to State of Emergency. I’m L.V. Anderson (or Laura to my colleagues), a senior editor at Grist, and I’m taking over the newsletter today to give you a wide-angle look at how climate change is affecting democracy not just in the U.S., but around the world. … | Continue reading


@grist.org | 25 days ago

Authoritarianism is on the rise. Is climate change to blame?

There's evidence that global warming creates fertile ground for political strongmen to come to power. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 25 days ago

More farms are turning to automation amid labor shortages

Climate change is making farm work more difficult and dangerous. But workers worry technology could lead to further exploitation. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 26 days ago

Chronic health problems amplify heat risk in the Rio Grande Valley

The deaths of two elderly siblings and their 60-year-old caretaker at first mystified Brownsville. Extreme heat is a quiet but growing threat for Rio Grande Valley residents with chronic health conditions. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 27 days ago

A former Utah coal town could soon become a hub for low-carbon cement

Terra CO2 wants to make cement additives from mining waste. The startup could get a $52.6 million DOE grant to build a clean energy factory near Salt Lake City. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 28 days ago

Meatpacking plants mostly pollute low-income, communities of color, EPA data shows

Postville, Iowa, has long dealt with the fallout from Agri Star Meat and Poultry, the town’s largest employer. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 29 days ago

Helene and Milton upended a key part of the nation’s food supply

America depends on Southeastern agriculture. After two hurricanes and billions of dollars in damages, the US food supply chain faces an uncertain future. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

‘Tattoos for the climate concerned’: Why people are getting inked for the planet

Faced with a future of uncertainty and change, four people share the climate messages they chose to wear forever. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

The climate stakes of the Harris-Trump election

From public health to public lands, here are 15 ways the next president could affect the climate and your life. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

Experts say a proposed revamp to the recycling symbol is still deceptive — and probably illegal

Does changing the shape of the recycling symbol make it any less misleading? | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

The water election that wasn’t

Hello, and welcome back to State of Emergency. I’m Jake Bittle, and today we’re going to shift the focus away from the storm-battered Southeast and take a look at one of the nation’s hottest battleground states. Election Day is just two weeks away, and the high-octane race for pr … | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

One issue will decide Arizona’s future. Nobody’s campaigning on it.

The fate of the state’s water depends on this election. For politicians and voters, it’s mostly an afterthought. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

The flood that forced a housing reckoning in Vermont

The interconnected climate and housing crises are putting some Montpelier residents one disaster away from homelessness. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

Public EV chargers are good for the planet. They’re also good for business.

Research shows that businesses with charging stations nearby see an economic boost. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

The nation’s first commercial carbon sequestration plant is in Illinois. It leaks.

The locals are worried: “Just because CO2 sequestration can be done doesn't mean it should be done" | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

The nation’s first commercial carbon sequestration plant is in Illinois. It leaks.

The locals are worried: “Just because CO2 sequestration can be done doesn't mean it should be done." | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

Tribes help tribes after natural disasters. Helene is no different.

Tribal nations long ago learned to stitch together a patchwork of support to help each other cope with disasters like Hurricane Helene. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

What happens to the world if forests stop absorbing carbon? Ask Finland.

Natural sinks of forests and peat were key to Finland’s ambitious target to be carbon neutral by 2035. But now, the land has started emitting more greenhouse gases than it stores. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

The tiny potato at the heart of one tribe’s fight against climate change

Wetlands absorb carbon from the atmosphere. The Coeur d’Alene’s restoration would do more than just that. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

When hurricane evacuation isn’t an option

Not everyone rides out storms like Milton or Helene by choice. Some simply cannot afford to flee. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

As Helene’s immediate impacts recede, a public health threat rises

A shortage of potable water and the toxic stew of sewage and other pollutants the flood left behind has prompted a race to avert a public health crisis in North Carolina. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

Amazon’s inflatable plastic pillows are officially a thing of the past

Across the globe, Prime packages will now be cushioned by paper. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

UN report backs up Sámi claims that mining in Finland violates their rights to land and culture

"Sustainability is an empty word if you don't respect and implement Indigenous rights here in our homelands." | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

Thinking of going solar? Wait until you need a new roof.

Solar panels typically last 25 years, while shingles are good for 20. Waiting until you need to re-roof is usually the best course when going solar. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

Water challenges — made worse by rising temperatures — are threatening the world’s crops

“We have to be smarter about what we grow, and we can be smarter about how we grow what we're growing.” | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

To prepare for the climate of tomorrow, foresters are branching out

At a reforestation site in Washington, forest managers are experimenting with "assisted migration" — planting trees from warmer, drier regions — to boost the forest's resilience. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

Milton’s October surprise

Hello, and welcome back to State of Emergency. I’m Jake Bittle, and today we’re talking about the political impact of Hurricane Milton, the second major storm to strike the United States in the last few weeks. I grew up in Tampa, Florida, less than 20 miles inland from the Gulf o … | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago

Wildfires are coming to the Southeast. Can landowners mitigate the risk in time?

No other part of the country has seen such a sharp rise in the number of big fires. The bigger challenge, though, is getting people to embrace the prescribed burns that can prevent them. | Continue reading


@grist.org | 1 month ago