Latest Articles

Welcome Grist Friends with Benefits

Thanks for becoming Grist’s Friend with Benefits. Umbra Fisk would like to issue you a warm welcome.

California net metering battle, v2

The California legislature is considering whether to lift caps on net metering, a key policy that allows solar system owners to get full credit for generating solar electricity. As legislators consider this policy choice, they may want to look into how solar benefits California’s public schools–who are getting into the solar business in a big […]

Sen. Lindsey Graham on the importance of passing climate legislation

Transcript of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) remarks today at the “Business Advocacy Day for Jobs, Climate & New Energy Leadership” in Washington D.C. Thanks y’all. Thank you. Hey everybody. It’s always good to be introduced by someone that can vote for you — just sounds better. Joe comes to every event I’ve ever had in […]

Freeway in LA…for bikes?

Advocates in famously car-centric Los Angeles are advocating for a new freeway system.  For bikes. The weather is great, the streets are gridlocked, and the city is flat-ish.  No brainer.

The jobs are in the trees

With Congress and the White House considering spending scarce dollars to jump-start employment, they’ll need to get the biggest jobs bang for the buck to give Americans confidence that they’re spending our money wisely. Probably the biggest jobs generator of all, and one of the least recognized, is investing in forest and land restoration and […]

Small is beautiful (and radical)

Biodiversity in action: lettuces grow at Four Season Farm. Photo: Four Season Farm This post was adapted from an address Coleman gave at this year’s Eco-Farm conference in California. ——————— When a friend told me of two of the proposed discussion topics for a major agricultural conference–“What is so radical about radical agriculture?” and “Is […]

With climate legislation flat on its back, Collin Peterson goes in for the kill

Collin Peterson, right: plowing over attempts to reign in greenhouse gas emissions. House ag committee chair Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) spent much of last summer gutting the Waxman-Markey climate change bill. Before the legislative process started, Peterson and his allies had made sure that the legislation would place no cap on greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. […]

On talking to our kids about the future

Now that the first month of the new year in the new decade has come to an end, a first month that has brought much to mourn and not much to celebrate, I’ve been thinking again about hope. What some were calling “Hopenhagen,” did not, as we all know, and perhaps should have known from […]

Rescuing failing states

One of the leading challenges facing the international community is how to rescue failing states, those countries most at risk of collapse due to a combination of weak governance, internal violence, and social upheaval. Continuing with business as usual in international assistance programs is not working, as evidenced by the continuing deterioration of places like […]

A Critical Moment for Energy Leadership

One of the most powerful moments during last week’s State of the Union came when President Obama warned that while Washington stalls, other nations are moving quickly to dominate the global clean-energy industry. “China is not waiting to revamp its economy,” Obama declared. “These nations aren’t playing for second place… They’re making serious investments in […]