After founding the Better Planet Laboratory at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2021, Zia Mehrabi, one of a handful of scientists studying the intersection of food insecurity and climate change, soon found himself fielding a steady stream of calls from policymakers and peers. Everyone wanted more quantitative insight into...
Science says plastic bag bans really do work
When you outlaw or discourage the sale of plastic bags, fewer of them end up as litter on beaches. That’s the intuitive finding of a paper published Thursday in the journal Science, which involved an analysis of policies to restrict plastic bag use across the United States. The study authors...
Canada’s wildfire crisis is displacing First Nations at alarming rates
Since mid-May, wildfires across Canada have burned 9.6 million acres, prompting the evacuation of approximately 40,000 people. According to Indigenous Services Canada, a government ministry, more than half of those evacuees are from First Nations communities, and nearly 34 tribes in almost every province are affected. The sudden rush of...
In Georgia, a runoff looms for Democrats after primary results for public utility commission seat
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between Grist and WABE, Atlanta’s NPR station. The Democratic primary for the seat representing part of metro Atlanta on the Georgia Public Service Commission appears to be headed to a runoff. In the other competitive race in this week’s PSC primaries, Republican...
Your favorite campgrounds, hiking trails, and forests could soon be up for auction
Among the several controversial proposals emerging from the U.S. Senate this week as it considers the tax and spending bill that President Donald Trump has promoted as “One Big, Beautiful Bill” is one that would make parts of the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in Washington state, the Buffalo Hills Wilderness Study...
With new Senate legislation, Congress is one step closer to gutting the Inflation Reduction Act
When the U.S. House of Representatives passed President Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” last month, gutting former President Biden’s landmark 2022 climate law almost in its entirety, all eyes turned to the Senate. The upper chamber of Congress must pass its own version of the bill to be reconciled with...
How America’s prairie was nearly destroyed — and why it should be restored
The American prairie was so vast, so alien, it shattered comprehension. Newcomers to the seemingly endless grasslands that once spanned approximately a quarter of North America often hit a psychic wall, descending into fits of mania. Prairie madness, as the phenomenon came to be known, was recorded by the journalist...
What warped the minds of serial killers? Lead pollution, a new book argues.
When Ted Bundy was a child in the 1950s, he hunted for frogs in the nearby swamps in Tacoma, Washington. The young Gary Ridgway, the future Green River Killer, grew up just a short drive north. Both men went on to become prolific serial killers, raping and mutilating dozens of...
Trump quietly shutters the only federal agency that investigates industrial chemical explosions
On a summer night in 2023, an explosion at one of Louisiana’s biggest petrochemical complexes sent a plume of fire into the sky. More explosions followed as poison gas spewed from damaged tanks at the Dow chemical plant, triggering a shelter-in-place order for anyone within a half mile of the...
From sea monkeys to Great Salt Lake gold
The shoreline of Utah’s Great Salt Lake frames an otherworldly body of water, from pastel pink to deep marine blue. In the fall, its surface transforms with slicks of gold—made from millions of brine-shrimp eggs called cysts. These tiny golden specks play a critical role in both the local ecosystem...