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Inside a California oil town’s divisive plan to survive the energy transition
This story was produced by Grist and was co-published with High Country News. It was supported by the Fund for Environmental Journalism of the Society of Environmental Journalists. Les Clark III took charge of the West Side Recreation and Park District in 2018, just as the bottom was falling out...
Tribes could lease their water to dry states. Why is it so hard?
The Colorado River Indian Tribes now have the ability to lease their water rights off-reservation, a move that could ease pressures on communities facing the effects of climate change through drought. The option may prove to be financially beneficial for the Colorado River Indian Tribes, also known as CRIT, but experts say the ability of the tribe to enter the water market is an outlier: For Indigenous Nations in the Southwest with a desire to sell their water, the process is so convoluted, it may take years before tribes, or non-tribal communities to see any financial benefit or much needed water.
A trillion cicadas will emerge in the next few weeks. This hasn’t happened since 1803.
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist, a nonprofit, environmental media organization. If you live in the Midwest or the Southeast, you know the cicadas are coming. And if you live in Chicago, you know the Cicadalypse is coming. Cicadas, winged buggy noisemakers whose relatives...
America’s grid isn’t ready for a renewable future. A new federal rule could change that.
America’s energy system has a problem: Solar and wind developers want to build renewable energy at a breakneck pace — and historic climate legislation has fueled their charge with financial incentives worth billions of dollars. But too often the power that these projects can produce has nowhere to go. That’s because the high-voltage lines that move energy across the country don’t have the capacity to handle what these panels and turbines generate. At the same time, electric vehicles, data centers, and new factories are pushing electricity demand well beyond what was expected just a few years ago.
Grist acquires The Counter and launches food and agriculture vertical
Grist, an award-winning, nonprofit media organization dedicated to highlighting climate solutions and uncovering environmental injustices, has acquired the nonprofit news site The Counter. Launched in 2015, The Counter investigated the forces shaping how and what America eats, and ceased publication in May 2022 due to a funding shortfall. As part...
Why we acquired The Counter
I have been at Grist for more than seven years now, and it’s been a hell of a ride. The organization has evolved — or, put more fairly, transformed — shifting from almost entirely Seattle-based to very nearly fully distributed, with staffers in more than 20 states. We’ve morphed from our roots as an iconoclastic blog to an authoritative digital magazine. We’ve experimented with new forms of storytelling, including climate fiction — which involves both a medium and ideas that weren’t on our radar back when I walked in the door in 2017.
Can electric woks produce great stir fry?
This story was produced by Grist and co-published with Eater. The first thing you notice walking up to a dai pai dong, one of Hong Kong’s signature open-air street food stalls, is the smoke. Aromatic plumes billow out from aluminum-covered vent hoods as chefs with decades of experience produce steaming plates of crackled shrimp, juicy mussels, and crisped-up rice by tossing the ingredients in a giant, flame-cradled wok.
Can the harsh conditions of space breed more resistant crops for Earth?
In early April of last year, a white capsule the size of a small school bus detached from the International Space Station and splashed down off the coast of Tampa, Florida. On board were 4,300 pounds of supplies and scientific experiments, including samples of dwarf tomatoes grown in space; crystals that could be used to make semiconductors; and medical data on the astronauts working in the space station. Tucked away among these contents was a much smaller and lighter cargo: more than a million tiny orange seeds.
An early-life wildfire exposure sickened these monkeys for decades
Proof of Concept is a video series profiling the science and scientists behind some of the environment’s most unexpected research. The experiment started by chance. In 2008, summer lightning storms sparked a chain of wildfires in the forests of Northern California. For weeks, smoke blanketed the state, drifting all the way to the California National Primate Research Center, where 50 rhesus monkeys had just been born.
Michigan wants fossil fuel companies to pay for climate change damages
This coverage is made possible through a partnership with Grist and Interlochen Public Radio in Northern Michigan. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Thursday that she plans to sue fossil fuel companies for knowingly contributing to climate change, harming the state’s economy and ways of life. “It’s long past...
As sea levels rise, the Quinalt Nation moves to higher ground
This story was originally published by ICT and is reproduced here as part of the Global Indigenous Affairs Desk, an Indigenous-led collaboration between Grist, High Country News, ICT, Mongabay, Native News Online, and APTN. A little more than a century ago the village of Taholah was built where the ocean...
A year in, New York’s pioneering public power law makes uneven progress
This story was originally published by Canary Media. One year ago, New York state passed one of the country’s most ambitious clean energy and climate justice laws. The Build Public Renewables Act authorized the New York Power Authority, or NYPA — a state-owned public power utility — to build and own clean energy projects for the first time. If the state falls short of its ambitious climate goals, the law mandates that NYPA step up to build renewables that will keep the state on track.
In Brazil, unprecedented flooding may force a political reckoning
Vitor Martinez, a 25-year-old musician and community organizer, lives in Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul — the southernmost state in Brazil. Martinez’s neighborhood borders Guaíba Lake, around which Porto Alegre’s main attractions are clustered. On a sunny, 80-degree Fahrenheit day in late March, people biked, ran, and strolled along the promenade that surrounds the lake. Shoppers flocked to a mall on the bottom floor of a brand new Hilton DoubleTree hotel in the middle of the neighborhood. More than 23,000 people from all over the world gathered a few miles away at a conference center near the city’s historic downtown to talk about the future of technology and business in South America. That version of Porto Alegre — manicured and prosperous — is a distant memory now, Martinez said.
Want to contact the Georgia Public Service Commission? Here’s how.
The five members of the Georgia Public Service Commission are publicly elected officials. That means anyone can attend their meetings, offer public comments, and give feedback on energy affordability, justice, and policy in the state. Follow and reach out to the PSC. All commission hearings and meetings are open to...
The world is obsessed with forests’ climate benefits. Here’s the problem.
What is the value of a tree? It can provide a cool place to rest in the shade, a snack in the form of fruit, lumber to build a home, and cleaner air. But trees are increasingly being prized for one thing: their ability to capture carbon and counteract climate change.
Behind the ‘butter board’: How the dairy industry took over your feed
For the past year and a half, you may have heard a lot about butter. It started with a viral video of influencer chef Justine Doiron carefully slathering two sticks of butter directly onto a wooden cheese board, seasoning the thick layer with flaky sea salt and lemon zest, arranging torn herbs and red onion across the surface, and finally finishing the dish with flower petals and a drizzle of honey. This was the butter board, a TikTok trend that quickly reached escape velocity and was featured by The New York Times, CNN, and the Today Show.
Texas flooding brings new urgency to Houston home buyout program
As a series of monster rainstorms lashed southeast Texas last week, thousands of homes flooded in low-lying neighborhoods around Houston. The storms dropped multiple months’ worth of rainfall on Houston in the span of a few days, overtopping rivers and creeks that wind through the city and forcing officials to divert millions of gallons of water from reservoirs. Elsewhere in the state, the rain and winds killed at least three people, including a 4-year-old boy who was swept away by flooding water.
The Gulf Coast is home to one of the last healthy coral reefs. It’s surrounded by oil.
Proof of Concept is a video series profiling the science and scientists behind some of the environment’s most unexpected research. This story was co-published with Science Friday. While the Gulf of Mexico is a region known for oil, it’s also home to something far less expected. Nestled among offshore...
Occidental Petroleum’s net-zero strategy is a ‘license to pollute,’ critics say
More so than any other fossil fuel company, Occidental Petroleum — known as Oxy — has built its climate strategy around innovations that capture carbon before it can be emitted or pull it directly out of the air. The Texas-based oil giant, which made more than $23 billion in revenue last year, says on its website that these “visionary technologies” will help it achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and enable a lower-carbon future.
California’s EV wave highlights the challenges ahead for utilities
We take for granted the endless flow of electrons that enable modern life just as we take for granted the air we breathe. Yet, an outage can occur at almost any time, usually when too much demand is placed on some portion of the circuit distributing energy around a neighborhood. As misfortune would have it, the rush to electrify the cars we’ve come to depend upon is increasing the risk of overloads and outages in the years ahead if utilities can’t keep up.
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