Articles by Jess Zimmerman

Jess Zimmerman was the editor of Grist List.

All Articles

  • This guy invented a manure-powered car … in 1971

    According to this 1971 article from Mother Earth News, British chicken farmer Harold Bate invented a car that runs on animal droppings 40 years ago. Why the hell are we still using oil? Bate invented a converter that reportedly recycles animal (or human) waste into methane gas — and he ginned it up from “odds […]

    Jess Zimmerman Technology

  • Swamp Thing yells at kids about littering

    You gotta admit, Swamp Thing is basically the perfect anti-littering spokesman (especially now that Captain Planet has gone off the rails). I mean, he’s essentially made out of the environment. In this so-bad-it’s-awesome 1989 PSA, he lectures children about throwing plastic cups in the water.

    Jess Zimmerman Health

  • How the Heartland Institute plans to wreck education

    Leaked documents illuminate the Heartland Institute's denialist agenda, and who's footing the bill. The list of funders is interesting -- Kochs, Philip Morris, Microsoft -- but perhaps most sobering is their plan to undermine climate science in the classroom.

    Jess Zimmerman Accountability

  • OMG tiny chameleon

    I’m not usually a sucker for reptiles and amphibians the way I am for, say, sloths — but when they’re the world’s tiniest, who can resist? First we had this ickle mini frogling, and now there’s a wee precious chameleonette.

    Jess Zimmerman Science