President Donald Trump’s approach to climate change rests on one key premise: Greenhouse gases are not that bad. This is a simple argument — albeit one that flies in the face of the scientific consensus on climate change — but it could have profound consequences. If carbon dioxide and the...
Gwich’in fight to protect caribou from Alaska oil development
The Bureau of Land Management opened nominations last week for the first-ever oil and gas lease auction in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, setting the stage for development that three Gwich’in governments are now suing to stop. Raeann Garnett, 29, is Gwich’in and the tribal chief of the...
Geothermal could replace almost half of the EU’s fossil fuel power
If you’ve ever been to a hot spring or geyser or volcano, you’ve seen the future of energy. Earth’s innards are hot — really hot — and that heat sometimes bubbles to the surface. If engineers dig holes in these geologically active places, then pipe water through rock, they can...
Data centers are scrambling to power the AI boom with natural gas
Boom Supersonic wants to build the world’s first commercial supersonic airliner. Founded in 2014, the company set out to make air travel dramatically faster — up to twice the speed of today’s passenger jets — while also aiming for a smaller environmental footprint. For years, Boom has focused on developing...
Utilities in the Southeast may be overestimating the AI boom
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between Grist and WABE, Atlanta’s NPR station. As more and more data centers crop up throughout Georgia and the Southeast, a recent study finds they may need less energy than the industry and utilities have been predicting. That could have substantial implications...
What over a century of ice data can tell us about the Great Lakes’ future
Michigan researchers have gone back in time to get a picture of how ice cover on the Great Lakes has evolved since the late 19th century. Using historical temperature records from weather stations around the region, researchers improved their understanding of where ice might have formed and for how long...
Overshoot: The world is hitting point of no return on climate
The world is poised to overshoot the goal of limiting average global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as for the first time, a three-year period, ending in 2025, has breached the threshold. And climate scientists are predicting devastating consequences, just as the world’s governments appear to have lost their appetite...
Inside the historic effort to keep the Great Barrier Reef alive
“I just got a whiff,” said Peter Harrison, a marine scientist, as he leaned over the edge of the boat and pointed his flashlight into the dark water. “It’s really coming through now.” It was shortly after 10 p.m. on a cloudy December night, and Harrison, a coral researcher at...
The US government says it is falling short on its legal duties to tribal nations
As federal agencies manage millions of acres of land critical to climate adaptation, wildlife, and water supplies, a new government report finds that they are falling short of their legal responsibilities to tribal nations. “In treaties, tribes ceded millions of acres of their territories to the federal government in exchange...
The US lost $35B in clean energy projects last year
For more than a decade, the clean energy economy has been on a steep growth trajectory. Companies have poured billions of dollars into battery manufacturing, solar and wind generation, and electric vehicle plants in the U.S., as solar costs fell sharply and EV sales surged. That momentum is set to...