The government shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history, is making it much less likely that many Americans will have enough food to eat this month. Last week, before the funds for federal grocery benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, ran out due to the shutdown, District...
Rising energy bills are rewiring American politics
It has been a big week in energy news, with several resounding wins for efficiency and climate advocates. On Tuesday, voters in Georgia flipped two seats on the state’s Public Service Commission, which oversees utilities and sets rates. They installed a pair of Democrats on this little known, yet powerful,...
Here are the 5 issues to watch at COP30 in Brazil
Global leaders will gather in northern Brazil next week to begin the 30th annual Conference of the Parties, or COP30, the United Nations climate summit that takes stock of just how much the world’s nations are doing to address climate change — or, depending on your capacity for optimism, how...
The government froze food aid. Tribes are thawing old traditions.
On November 1, when the Trump administration announced it would not disburse benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, due to the ongoing government shutdown, tribal governments began to scramble. Approximately 25 percent of Indigenous households are considered food insecure and rely on SNAP as well as the...
In Georgia, power bills beat out party politics
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between Grist and WABE, Atlanta’s NPR station. During his own victory speech on Election Day this week, Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens took a moment to celebrate some other candidates who’d also just won their races. “For those of you who don’t know...
Illinois takes steps to address high energy costs, betting big on battery storage
Electricity prices have been rising across much of the country, and Illinois is among the states seeing the sharpest increases. Over the past five years, prices have shot up by about a third on average across the state, and some regions have seen increases of nearly 50 percent. According to...
Climate change ‘is the new liberal arts’: Colleges build environmental lessons into degrees
On a Thursday this fall, hundreds of students at the University of California, San Diego, were heading to classes that, at least on paper, seemed to have very little to do with their majors. Hannah Jenny, an economics and math major, was on their way to a class on sustainable...
It was a very good election for the climate
Tuesday was a great day at the ballot box for the planet, with climate-friendly initiatives and candidates winning nationwide. In races from New York to Georgia to Washington, voters backed funding renewables, reining in energy costs, and building out mass transit — and the people promising to deliver those policies....
Why cities around the world are uniting to keep cool
The following is a sponsored op-ed written by Kate Gallego, Mayor of Phoenix, Arizona and Joy Belmonte, Mayor of Quezon City, the Philippines and sponsored by C40 Cities. This summer, cities around the world broke temperature records once again. The results were devastating: Extreme heat now kills nearly half a...
No doubt about it: Climate change made Hurricane Melissa way worse
Last month, forecasters watched with dread as Hurricane Melissa lumbered across the Atlantic Ocean, morphed into a monster, and took aim at the islands of the Caribbean. As predicted by the National Hurricane Center, landfall was catastrophic: While officials are still tallying the costs, both in lives lost and property...