Articles by David Roberts
David Roberts was a staff writer for Grist. You can follow him on Twitter, if you're into that sort of thing.
All Articles
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![A very sad balloon.]()
![A very sad balloon.]()
California’s carbon market is leaking
Recent changes to the rules of California's carbon market threaten to allow substantial "leakage," which would merely shuffle emissions, not eliminate them. This is a Bad Thing.
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![Solar panels in Africa]()
![Solar panels in Africa]()
What will it take to get electricity to the world’s poor?
What's the most promising way to extend electricity to those who now lack it? Is it top-down, extending the centralized grid and building large power plants? Or is it bottom-up, with distributed energy?
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How can we get power to the poor without frying the planet?
Nearly 1.3 billion people lack access to electricity, but bringing them up to a western level of consumption of fossil fuels will fry the planet. What's the ethical path forward?
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![rooftop solar panels]()
![rooftop solar panels]()
Rooftop solar is just the beginning; utilities must innovate or go extinct
Fights over rooftop solar generally focus on "net metering," but the challenge to utilities is far greater than that, and if they hope to survive, their response must be more ambitious.
