Grist List

Anti-climate change study is copied off someone else’s crummy paper

Note to climate change deniers: If you're going to lean heavily on a particular paper, make sure it's not copied out of Wikipedia. The journal Computational Statistics and Data Analysis has retracted a 2008 report by statistician Edward Wegman, which claimed the climate change consensus is an artifact of overly-intimate collaboration between scientists — essentially, peer […]

Jess Zimmerman Science

Why Germany had to phase out nuclear to build its renewables

Lots of American journalists (including this one!) have gone on and on about renewables and nuclear power in Germany without having a first-hand appreciation of the situation, or even any German language ability. This has led us all to misapprehend some pretty basic facts about why the Germans decided to phase out their existing nuclear […]

Christopher Mims Science

Nearly 1 million Bangladeshis rely on solar panels for electricity

Less than half of Bangladeshis have access to electricity, which is essential for economic productivity and the kind of night-time illumination that allows kids to study after dark. (Hey, not everyone is as determined as Abe Lincoln.) So the World Bank is spending to get solar-powered light systems installed where the (notoriously unreliable) electrical power […]

Christopher Mims Technology

Critical List: Solar panels and toxin-filled boilers for all

The home improvement store Lowe's is partnering with Sungevity, a solar panel company, to offer instant, in-store estimates for home solar installation. The panels can be rented for a monthly fee. There goes your excuse: Get off the grid, already. The EPA caved to manufacturers’ push to delay emissions standards for toxins like mercury and […]

Sarah Laskow Science

Scholastic’s pro-coal curriculum pulled from schools

Scholastic, the children's book publisher, took a big pile of money from the American Coal Foundation and turned it into a curriculum for 4th graders that (surprise!) didn't mention any of the drawbacks of coal. Now Scholastic is all sorry it pimped out America's kids to the industry that quite possibly cares least about their […]

Christopher Mims Energy

Some biofuels worse than dirtiest fossil fuels

If you fuel your truck with biodiesel made from palm oil grown on a patch of cleared rainforest, you could be putting into the atmosphere 10 times more greenhouse gasses than if you’d used conventional fossil fuels. It's a scenario so ugly that, in its worst case, it makes even diesel created from coal (the […]

Christopher Mims Technology

Produce industry wants Americans to eat their pesticide-laden veggies

For years, the Environmental Working Group has warned consumers away from "The Dirty Dozen," the 12 fruits and vegetables that contain the most trace pesticides. But the produce industry has had enough of this anti-vegetable propaganda! A consortium of food groups, from the American Mushroom Institute to the National Watermelon Association Inc., is mounting a […]

Sarah Laskow Agriculture

Booming U.S. coal exports forebode a coal-fired 21st century

If you thought America didn't make anything anymore, you're wrong! We make disastrous, planet-killing levels of climate change. It's all a consequence of the record 100 million tons of coal we're going to export all over the world this year, much of it to Asia. Even as one out of 10 gigawatts of U.S. coal-fired […]