Skip to content
Grist home
Support nonprofit news

Articles by Sarah Laskow

Sarah Laskow is a reporter based in New York City who covers environment, energy, and sustainability issues, among other things.

All Articles

  • Three Gorges Dam has serious issues, China admits

    When a country commits to any project as monstrous as China's Three Gorges Dam, it is bound to encounter occasional difficulties. The Chinese government, as governments are wont to do, has preferred to gloss over the dam's detriments and emphasize its attributes, like the 84 billion kilowatt hours of electricity it produced last year. But […]

  • Last seen in 1898, red-crested tree rat pokes its nose out

    This is a very fuzzy, cute rodent, and no one has seen one like it since 1898. It's called a red-crested tree rat, or, more evocatively, a red-crested soft-furred spiny-rat. This one wandered up to two volunteers at Fundacións ProAves' El Dorado Nature Reserve in Colombia earlier this month and hung around for a couple […]

  • Critical List: Bike to work today; Amazon deforestation rate rose this year

    It's Bike to Work day. Now all you bike commuters know how secretaries feel on Administrative Professionals Day: “One DAY? I’ve been doing this day in and day out all year!” The rate of Amazon deforestation has been declining in recent years; this year, it climbed again. The Brazilian government is — rightly — freaking […]

  • TV vs. Computer: The energy use showdown

    Given a choice between spending an hour watching TV or surfing the Internet, which should you choose, assuming, of course, that your goal is not entertainment but consuming the least energy possible? This handy graphic provides the answer: It's surfing the Internet: At .09 kilowatt-hours per hour, your computer consumes the least energy of any […]