Latest Articles

Critical List: Christie ditches climate initiative; France opens huge solar farm

New Jersey governor Chris Christie has jumped ship from a regional greenhouse gas program, because "it's a failure." The owners of the Fukushima nuclear plant provided regulators with only a one-page memo on its tsunami and earthquake preparedness. One page. A decade ago. In Japan, the country that invented the word “tsunami.” Green tech companies […]

Ten more great walking cities [SLIDESHOW]

A few months back, we published a slideshow on the world’s top 10 walking cities, as determined by a vote of Lonely Planet readers. Some of you, dear friends of Grist, thought that list omitted some gems. So let’s have another round of great walking cities — this time, from your nominations.

Change in season: Why salt doesn’t deserve its bad rap

A good pinch of this won’t do you any harm.For something that’s so often mixed with anti-caking agents, salt takes a lot of lumps in the American imagination. Like fat, people tend to think of it as an unnecessary additive — something to be avoided by seeking out processed foods that are “free” of it. […]

Even the Swiss hate nuclear now

In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, it seems nobody can stay neutral on nuclear power, not even Switzerland. The country has abandoned plans for new nuclear reactors, and while the five existing reactors will be allowed to keep operating, they won't be replaced. Nuclear in Switzerland will be entirely phased out by 2034, and […]

How commuting can ruin your marriage

At least in Sweden, people who have a long-distance commute are 40 percent more likely to separate or divorce. That’s the finding of Erika Sandow, a Swedish social geographer who studied more than two million partnered commuters for her dissertation work. Sandow acknowledges that there are career benefits to long commutes — people who are […]

Bombshell: High and rising price for carbon pollution emerges as credible deficit reduction strategy

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation funded six groups from across the political spectrum to put forward plans addressing our nation’s fiscal challenges. All the plans are here. The Center for American Progress (CAP) plan, “Budgeting for Growth and Prosperity” [PDF], brings the deficit below 2 percent of GDP within six years and fully balances by […]

Need a new bike?

In honor of bike to work month, one lucky Grist fan is going to get a $500 gift certificate to a bike shop in their area.

Gas-price spikes burden the American economy while benefiting oil companies

Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. The struggles of families and businesses over the past seven years are linked directly to high profits for oil companies due to high energy-price volatility. A new report [PDF] from the Center for American Progress (CAP) finds that families and businesses are exposed to massive price swings for the vast […]

How to get to a fully renewable power system

How can we scale up the clean and phase out the dirty?What’s it going to take to substantially ramp up the amount of renewables in the electricity system? There are many nerdy discussions of that question on the interwebs, but lemme try to talk about it in reasonably non-nerdy language. There’s a certain amount of […]

Let’s balance the budget by charging for CO2

The Center for American Progress has released a plan that could balance the budget by 2030, lower some people’s income taxes, and cut carbon emissions 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. This isn’t just a Holy Grail, it’s an entire Holy Place Setting. The CAP plan proposes to eliminate the deficit mainly through taxes […]