Latest Articles

Cloning a mammoth: Totally gonna happen

Back in August, a team of scientists uncovered a woolly mammoth's thigh bone, which had been so well preserved in Siberian permafrost that it offered the possibility of creating a mammoth clone. And this weekend, a team of Japanese and Russian scientist announced that, yes, they are going to do this thing. Mammoth clones. They're […]

Efficiency standards are the SINGLE BIGGEST CLIMATE DEAL EVER

The U.S. federal government teamed up with all of the major auto manufacturers and hammered out a deal to double the average fuel efficiency of all vehicles on the road by 2025 — to 54.5 miles per gallon. New vehicles sold under the program will save "a total of four billion barrels of oil and […]

Food Studies: The invisibility of modern hunger

A scene from Rock Center with Brian Williams.Food Studies features the voices of volunteer student bloggers from a variety of different food- and agriculture-related programs at universities around the world. You can explore the full series here. A couple pulls into a grocery store parking lot at exactly midnight on the first of the month. […]

New study shows three-quarters of global temperature rise is humans’ fault

A study published this weekend in Nature Geoscience has double-checked, and confirmed, the idea that climate change is mostly human-made. It uses "an alternative line of evidence" to prove that most observed climate change — 74 percent of it — comes from greenhouse-gas emissions, not natural variability. We basically knew that already, but it's always […]

Climate change finally hits Apple geeks where it hurts: Mac shortages

As Bangkok dries out from epic floods that the IPCC says will only get worse as climate change accelerates, its leaders are contemplating moving the entire capitol city to higher ground. But I know what you're thinking: How does this affect me? Answer: It’ll hit you right in the hard drive. Now that supply chains […]

Critical List: 74 percent of warming is human-made; Schwarzenegger takes on clean energy

A study quantified the share of climate change that can attributed to humans and found that at least 74 percent of warming is human-made. 2010 saw the biggest jump in carbon dioxide output, ever. The mission of Occupy Green/Red Chile is to keep the GM industry's hands off of New Mexico's peppers. Ah-nold doesn't think […]

My holiday wish? Ixnay on the iPod

The author’s beloved crap.Photo: Thomas HaydenCross-posted from Last Word on Nothing. Black Friday is behind us, and Cyber Monday too. But those are just start dates: The pressure to buy, buy, buy isn’t going to let up for another month at least. And that has me thinking about one of my favorite gadgets — a […]

Ask Umbra: Which Christmas tree is the greenest?

Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, Which is greener — real Christmas trees or fake? I know you answered this question in the past, but I wonder if there’s any new data? Ginger C. Littleton, Colo. All this tree needs is a little love.A. Dearest Ginger, Of the many wonderful and cherished traditions […]

Movement-building and 2012

“But eventually, the greater danger to the movement is that it may dovetail into the presidential election campaign that’s coming up. I’ve seen that happen before in the antiwar movement here, and I see it happening all the time in India. Eventually, all the energy goes into trying to campaign for the “better guy,” in […]

Karen Luken: A one-woman waste management authority

Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the […]