Grist List
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These toxic household cleaners can cause asthma or burn your lungs
Ah, America. The country where you’re allowed to buy products containing hazardous chemicals that other countries have banned. The Environmental Working Group, the people who brought you the Dirty Dozen list of foods to buy organic, are taking an extensive look at the chemicals in more than 2,000 cleaning products. The group’s researchers are months […]
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Critical List: Nigeria oil spill 60 times bigger than reported; Arctic Ocean methane
Amnesty International found documents showing that a 2008 Shell oil spill in Nigeria was 60 times bigger than the company claimed. And in Russia, 2,000 tons of oil spilled from a well over two days. But, really, who knows how much oil it was? The thawing Arctic Ocean is releasing gobs of methane into the atmosphere. Figuring out how […]
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Modern day Moby Dick? Check out this super rare, all-white killer whale
Researchers recently spotted what is believed to be the only all-white adult orca whale in existence.
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Houstonians want walkable neighborhoods
Car-centric Houston tends to be one of our go-to examples for everything that can go wrong with a city, ever. But we may not be able to use the city as a whipping boy much longer. According to a new survey, Houstonians are seeing the light on walkable and transit-accessible neighborhoods. More than half of […]
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Deadly tree disease could wipe out California’s citrus industry
Hide ya’ lemons, hide ya’ limes — a deadly disease is coming for California’s citrus trees. State ag experts recently found a tree that tested positive for Huanglongbing–and yes, it is way more serious than its sing-songy name suggests. The bacteria, also known as citrus greening or yellow dragon disease, attacks a trees’ vascular system […]
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Climate denier campaigns have zero impact on belief in global warming
It’s hard sometimes to ignore climate deniers: They’re so wrong! About everything! But the biggest impact they seem to be having is just that: annoying environmentalists. Denialist campaigns have had little influence on the 30 percent of people who are skeptical about climate science, ABC News reports. The one thing that does change those people’s […]
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Singapore’s giant supertrees: The ultimate vertical gardens
Singapore is in the middle of a project that looks like a Miyazaki movie come to life. The city’s 18 “supertrees” do everything that normal trees do, only better. They will stretch up to 164 feet tall, grow 200 species of flowers, ferns, and epiphytes, collect solar energy, harvest rainwater, and work as a natural […]
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In India, solar-powered ATMs use as much energy as a lightbulb
In urban America, getting money out of the bank means walking a block to the ATM. In rural India, the nearest bank branch might be a day’s journey away. But now a company called Vortex Engineering is using solar power to bring convenient banking to out-of-the-way villages. The key: The company’s ATMs are energy efficient. […]
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Texas college turns football field into awesome urban farm
If your football team can’t hack it on the field, perhaps they can grow some kick-ass kale. At least that’s the sentiment from Dallas’ Paul Quinn College. After the university cut its football program, President Michael Sorrell decided to transform the unused field into a working farm. The WE Over Me Farm, which covers 57,000 […]
