For several years now, heat pumps have outsold gas furnaces in the United States. Instead of burning fossil fuels to generate warmth, these appliances use electricity — ideally provided by renewable sources like wind and solar — to transfer heat from even frigid outdoor air into a home. Many states...
For Indigenous communities, AI brings peril — and promise
When the United Nations marked the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples last week, it signaled a growing recognition of a new kind of extraction. Artificial intelligence, or AI, systems are being trained on massive troves of online data, much of it collected without the consent of the communities...
Factory farms don’t just stink — they make it harder to breathe, too
New research out this week underscores what many environmental justice advocates in the U.S. have long known: Animal feeding operations — another term for factory farming — pollute the air, and these environmental impacts are disproportionately felt by nearby communities, who are often people of color. The report, published Tuesday and...
A hidden fuel source beneath the Midwest? Scientists are investigating.
About a billion years ago, the United States was nearly ripped in half. Magma bubbled up as the Earth’s crust stretched thin somewhere around Michigan, nearly creating a new sea. Evidence of that scar, called the Midcontinent Rift, now curls around the upper Midwest, stretching from Ontario all the way...
How climate change endangers mothers and children
This story is a collaboration between Vox and Grist and builds on Expecting worse: Giving birth on a planet in crisis, a project by Vox, Grist, and The 19th that examines how climate change impacts reproductive health — from menstruation to conception to birth. Explore the full series here. Climate change poses unique threats to some of the most...
Plastic pollution is toxic and everywhere. Now, legal experts say it’s a human rights violation.
Plastics don’t just pose a threat to the marine environment and people’s health; they jeopardize basic human rights. This is the framing that a growing number of legal experts, policymakers, and environmental groups are using in conversations about a proposed United Nations treaty to “end plastic pollution,” which is undergoing...
Health was supposed to be central to the UN plastics treaty. Now it’s up for debate.
Since negotiations for a United Nations treaty to address plastic pollution began more than three years ago, protecting human health has risen to the top of many countries’ priority lists. This is partly because the science on the issue has evolved so rapidly. There are now thousands of scientific papers...
Two years after a wildfire took everything, Maui homeowners are facing a new threat: Foreclosure
As a Native Hawaiian teenager growing up in West Maui, Mikey Burke couldn’t wait to leave. “All my life, I thought I was bigger than this town, bigger than the village, and I was going to go somewhere and make something of myself,” she said. Then she went to college...
Homeowners affected by the 2023 Maui wildfires: Here’s how to keep and rebuild your home
Two years after the devastating 2023 Maui wildfires, homeowners may be facing the prospect of repaying mortgage loans previously in forbearance. Grist has compiled tips and resources to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. Jump to: ↓ Funding for homeowners affected by the 2023 Maui wildfires↓ Tips on dealing with your mortgage...
Illegal price-gouging is rampant after disasters. Can it be stopped?
Last January, a series of massive wildfires broke out across the Los Angeles area, fueled by high winds and dry temperatures. The fires raged for weeks, incinerating entire neighborhoods in the wealthy Pacific Palisades and in middle-class Altadena. They killed at least 30 people and destroyed at least 10,000 homes....