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Articles by Senior Staff Writer Kate Yoder

Kate Yoder is a senior staff writer covering climate change through the lens of language, culture, and history. Her work has received a FOLIO: Eddie & Ozzie Award and a SEAL Environmental Journalism Award for bringing fresh perspective and social relevance to environmental issues. She has been at Grist since 2015 and is based in Seattle.

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Featured Article

What does going on a date have to do with fossil fuels? Everything, according to the petroleum industry. 

One advertisement from the pipeline company Energy Transfer follows two people getting ready for a date, the man primping with hair gel, the woman applying lipstick, before meeting at a bar. “That connection was brought to you by petroleum products,” the narrator says. “But what if we lived in a world without oil and natural gas?” 

The story rewinds to the beginning, except this time, the woman looks bewildered as her phone with the dating app evaporates in her hands. She gets lipstick all over her cheek when the car she’s riding in hits the pavement without its tires. As his hair gel disappears, the man looks into the mirror, baffled. When they sit down across from each other, makeup, hair dye, and glasses fade away. In the game playing on a TV in the bar, a football disintegrates a second before the kicker swings his leg at empty air.

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