Grist List

Is the future of solar centralized or distributed?

Solar power produces only a tiny fraction of America's energy, but that hasn't stopped greens — who are always up for expending at least as much energy fighting each other as fighting fossil fuels — from commencing a debate that we'll probably be having for decades, if not centuries to come: Is it better to […]

Christopher Mims Technology

Coca-Cola adds BPA to list of ways it doesn’t care about your health

Did you hear? The science around BPA — a substance that the government of Canada has declared "toxic" and has banned in baby bottles — "just isn't there," according to the CEO of Coca-Cola. If this kind of through-the-looking glass denial of science sounds familiar, it's because it's happened before, with tobacco and climate change […]

Christopher Mims Agriculture

China may have bankrupted itself building high-speed rail

We're all about high-speed rail, but not if it's going to bankrupt the world's second largest economy. Zhao Jian, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University and a longtime critic of high-speed rail, said he worries that the cost of [the country's high speed rail] project might have created a hidden debt bomb that threatens China’s […]

Christopher Mims Uncategorized

Holy crap: giant oil company buys giant solar company

What's Exxon going to do with this years' record-breaking profits? If you said "buy a 60 percent stake in America's largest solar panel manufacturing company," you have wildly underestimated the degree to which its CEO would find that profoundly emasculating. Cheese-eating surrender-monkeys have no such qualms, however, which is why French oil giant Total just […]

Christopher Mims Technology

Awesome video shows us what the messaging on climate and clean energy must become

Holy hickory-smoked pole beans, did you just see that? That's what happens when the messaging on climate shifts from scare tactics — which studies show only work on about 10 percent of the population — to a totally honest, positive but not Pollyanna-ish attempt to get people excited about real change. Carbon Nation is the […]

Christopher Mims Politics

China could start reducing energy use in the next 15 years

Just as U.S. emissions are sneaking back up to 2005 levels, greenhouse gas emissions and energy usage in China could be on their way back down, says a new study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. This analysis shows Chinese emissions peaking between 2025 and 2030, and energy use starting to drop as early as […]

Jess Zimmerman Climate & Energy

Environmental regulations visible from space

We're learning a lot about space spiders and space bacteria from the nerd horde at the NASA tweetup, but somehow this one from Rachel Maddow writer Tricia McKinney is the most chilling. (She's citing astronaut Leland Melvin.) It's true:

Jess Zimmerman Politics

Nader: Obama’s guaranteed to win, so why not make him sweat?

Former Green presidential candidate — and former presumed Democratic spoiler — Ralph Nader doesn't plan to run again this time around. But that isn't keeping him from political machinations. Nader's plan for 2012: Obama's gonna win anyway, so why not put some pressure on him to move leftward? Obama's win is basically guaranteed, thanks to […]