Last year, Grist awarded more than $20,000 to local newsrooms to produce stories on the intersection of climate change and rural America. We’re pleased to now be able to share the coverage that emerged from this initiative, which dug into topics as varied as community tensions over solar power development, shifting agricultural seasons, clean drinking water, and the inaccessibility of disaster preparedness for people with disabilities.
The grant opportunity was part of the Rural Newswire project, a content-sharing service to support the rural U.S. news ecosystem, which Grist launched with the Center for Rural Strategies in 2023. Grist and the Center for Rural Strategies gave out a first round of grants that same year, supporting more than 50 stories.
“The media has largely ignored the impacts of climate change on America’s vast, complex rural regions,” said Grist Editor-in-Chief Katherine Bagley. “This reporting shows just how many stories there are to tell, and how desperately readers need to see their communities and their experiences reflected in today’s journalism.”
Maine Monitor (Emmett Gardner)
Maine mobile home park residents have faced nearly 3 years of unsafe water amid rent hikes
Maine is tightening limits on “forever chemicals” in drinking water. Are communities ready?
Truth Seekers (Milton Kirby)
When the seasons stop making sense: Climate change is rewriting the rules for Black farmers
The Lens (Delaney Nolan)
Unfounded fears hamper Louisiana’s solar boom
Columbian Insight (K.C. Mehaffey and Deborah Bloom)
Special report: How data centers pose a unique threat to Pac NW Tribes
Disabled Journalists Association (Sonali Gupta, Ari Saperstein, Kelli Finger, Caroline Keane, Shruti Rajkumar)
Disaster preparedness (still) isn’t accessible in rural America
Disability-led rural climate initiatives that are making change
Here’s why rural accessible transit sucks (and why that matters for the climate)
