Articles by Jess Zimmerman

Jess Zimmerman was the editor of Grist List.

All Articles

  • New trend: Going produce shopping in abandoned gardens

    Most cities these days are chock-full of foreclosed properties. Some foreclosed properties are chock-full of fruit trees, vegetable gardens, and other sources of fresh produce. That adds up to a lot of tasty plant matter going to waste -- unless people take it upon themselves to harvest food from abandoned houses, either for their own use or to distribute to shelters. That's not legal, but as a New York Times piece makes clear, that doesn't mean it's not a good idea.

    Jess Zimmerman Agriculture

  • In a world of 7 billion, what does the typical person look like?

    Here's a new take on the "new normal." National Geographic has run some calculations on our population averages, now that we're staring 7 billion in the face. The verdict: The most typical human right now is a 28-year-old Han Chinese man — there are over 9,000,000 people in the world fitting that description! — who […]

    Jess Zimmerman Culture

  • Call to action: Stop the environment

    Are you kidding me with this? Two former members of The State AND Deputy Hawk getting all Modest Proposal on climate change? Shut down the internet, please, I want to go out on a high note.

    Jess Zimmerman Science

  • How to tell if your city is going places

    Here's a handy infographic, from the Project for Public Spaces, to help you distinguish cities that are going places from cities that are going nowhere. What's your retail shopping like? Transportation? Public spaces? (Or publc spaces; even handy infographics sometimes have typos, and this one coulda been a lot worse.) 

    Jess Zimmerman Cities