For four years straight, President Donald Trump tried to gut the budgets of federal agencies focusing on climate and the environment. The former president proposed canceling clean energy research, cutting federal support to prevent flooding, and winnowing down crucial federal agencies. In 2019, he even went so far as to ask Congress to slash funding […]
Tag: Climate
Did climate change cause societies to collapse? New research upends the old story.
If you’re under the impression that climate change drove ancient civilizations to their demise, you probably haven’t heard the full story. The ancient Maya, for example, didn’t vanish when their civilization “collapsed” around the 9th century. Though droughts certainly caused hardship, and cities were abandoned, more than 7 million Maya still live throughout Mexico and […]
The First 100 – Biden’s (not-so-secret) climate plan
A short-run weekly newsletter analyzing federal climate action during the first months of the Biden administration. Hello, I’m Shannon Osaka, and today is Day 73 of the Biden administration. This week, the Biden infrastructure plan landed. President Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan is not about the climate. Wait. Bear with me. The president unveiled his long-awaited plan to revive the […]
This machine in Texas could suck up companies’ carbon emissions — if they pay
To burnish their green credentials, companies have long paid to plant trees or protect forests in the hopes that nature will absorb their greenhouse gas emissions. Shopify, the Canadian company that runs e-commerce sites, wants to take a more hands-on approach — by paying a Texas venture to pull carbon dioxide from the sky and […]
A live conversation with Gina McCarthy
Join us on March 25 for a conversation between White House Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy and Grist CEO Brady Piñero Walkinshaw about how the Biden administration plans to tackle the climate crisis in 2021. After four years of environmental rollbacks, White House climate action is entering a new chapter. But what will it look like […]
‘There’s no alternative’: Louisiana’s ambitious plan to stay above water
Louisiana has never been hard to pinpoint on a map — it’s the only state in the U.S. that looks like a giant boot. At least it did, before the ocean swallowed the carbon emissions belched out by industrializing nations and began to swell. Now, the boot is losing a football field of land every […]
Microwaves could be the future for plastic recycling
This story was originally published by Canada’s National Observer and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. It’s been almost a decade since Jocelyn Doucet first experimented with recycling plastic waste in a microwave. Now he says the technology derived from those early efforts will make it possible to produce plastic almost […]
WATCH: A Just and Sustainable Future – A Live Conversation With Grist
2021 already seems more full of promise for decisive progress on climate than several past years. But what great things hover on the horizon? What else can we look forward to? Join Grist CEO Brady Piñero Walkinshaw, Grist Executive Editor Nikhil Swaminathan, and Fix Director Lisa Garcia for a conversation about Grist’s new focus, the […]
Will race and income inequalities trip up Cascadia’s fight against climate change?
This story was produced in collaboration with InvestigateWest. The heavy wind woke Niria Garcia about 5 a.m. It whipped against her home, leaving her restless as she fitfully tried to get a little more sleep. “Something doesn’t feel right,” Garcia thought to herself. On that day last September, a devastating fire ripped through Southern Oregon, […]
Dying oil companies’ parting gift: millions in cleanup costs
When Weatherly Oil and Gas filed for bankruptcy in February 2019, the company was walking away from several hundred Texas wells. Many hadn’t produced a drop of oil in years. Companies are legally required to “plug” wells that they’re no longer using to extract oil and gas by pouring concrete into all their openings and […]