Grist List

Critical List: Snow comes in April this year; Obama campaign seeks environmentalists

New York and Pennsylvania are getting hit with an April blizzard. The United States and Britain are going to collaborate on offshore wind development. Lithium air batteries could extend an electric vehicle’s battery life by a factor of 10 … if anyone could figure out how to make one.

Sarah Laskow

India flips the switch on world’s largest solar power plant

The power plant has a field of solar panels the size of Lower Manhattan.

Jess Zimmerman Energy

The dumbest green bikinis

As the world heats up, it will be increasingly important to have itty-bitty swimsuits to wear (under your voluminous poncho, of course, once the ozone layer crumbles and turns sunlight to poison). So what swimwear best prepares you for an apocalyptic climate-altered future, while simultaneously being low-impact and sustainable? Whatever, that’s a boring question; here […]

Jess Zimmerman Culture

8-year-old environmentalist raises $250 in 12 hours after friends’ parents call her ‘stupid’ for caring

Reddit is the internet in microcosm — it showcases a lot of gross boneheaded stuff, gives space and succor to every flavor of perversion and bigotry, and is simultaneously full of interesting information, funny quips, and the occasional moment of grace. This story is one of those. Last night, Redditor nervousbreakdown19 wrote that her conscientious […]

Jess Zimmerman Culture

Let’s replace Earth Day with Destroy the Earth Day

If you're like us, you're totally burned out on all the absurd, disingenuous ways that marketers are trying to connect their wares to Earth Day. Perhaps part of the problem is that no one really knows what they're talking about when they say they want to “save the Earth.”

Christopher Mims Climate & Energy

Surreal, weirdly beautiful photo of planetary destruction seen from space

Some things that look awful up close can look kind of beautiful from space. Like this enormous open-pit copper mine in northern Chile.

Christopher Mims Health

287 coastal energy facilities at risk from sea-level rise

Sea levels are rising, which means that there’s a greater risk of floods that reach well over the high tide mark. By 2030, the risk that coastal floods will go four feet or more over high tide will have doubled, Climate Central reports. And in that zone lie 287 energy facilities — power plants, natural […]

Sarah Laskow Buildings

Critical List: Climate bill passes Mexico’s senate; Bill Clinton tells enviros to ‘chill out’

The Mexican Senate passed a climate change bill that’s all set to become law. Reuters reports it was “non-controversial.” No wonder Republicans are so set on keeping Mexican immigrants out of the country — they might bring in science. Bill Clinton has a message for sustainability advocates: “Chill out – sometimes this stuff takes years.” […]