Jackson Voss loves his alma mater, Louisiana State University. He appreciates that his undergraduate education was paid for by a program dreamed up by an oil magnate and that he received additional scholarships from ExxonMobil and Shell. But the socially conscious Louisiana native was also aware of what the support...
The $20B question hanging over America’s struggling farmers
As Earth heats up, the growing frequency and intensity of disasters like catastrophic storms and heat waves are becoming a mounting problem for the people who grow the planet’s food. Warming is no longer solely eroding agricultural productivity and food security in distant nations or arid climates. It’s throttling production...
Tariffs won’t just hit your wallet. They could also increase food waste.
Spring has sprung, and you can tell by looking at Dig’s online menu. The fast-casual chain known for its bountiful salads and bowls is promoting a new sandwich for the spring — the “avo smash,” wherein a hearty piece of chicken or tofu is embraced by a brioche bun, pesto...
1 in 8 Californians live in the most dangerous wildfire zones
Five years ago, California was reeling from the Camp Fire, the country’s deadliest wildfire in a century. State lawmakers responded by mandating new building requirements to protect homes in high-risk areas, but by their January 2025 deadline, the department responsible for the rules still hadn’t written them. Then, swaths of...
The government aims to cut funding for safer streets. Here’s who would be hurt most.
The Department of Transportation has ordered a review of federal funding for bike lanes and plans to target recent projects that “improve the condition for environmental justice communities or actively reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” The move, outlined in a department memo obtained by Grist, is part of the Trump administration’s...
Trump wants to wind down FEMA. Could states fill the gap?
President Donald Trump appears to be serious about getting the federal government out of disaster response. Earlier this week, his secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, said in a Cabinet meeting that she would move to “eliminate” the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the beleaguered agency that handles relief and recovery...
Most critical minerals are on Indigenous lands. Will miners respect tribal sovereignty?
Mining — whether for fossil fuels or, increasingly, the critical minerals in high demand today — has a long history of perpetuating violence against Indigenous people. Forcibly removing tribal communities to get to natural resources tied to their homelands has been the rule, not the exception, for centuries. Today, more...
Why Biden and Trump both support this federal mineral mapping project
Scattered across the United States, hundreds of thousands of abandoned mines scar the earth, posing a safety hazard to passing hikers and a health risk to nearby communities. But cached inside piles of refuse and ponds of toxic waste, there are also elements as critical for the 21st-century economy as...
Mining is an environmental and human rights nightmare. Battery recycling can ease that.
Rows of dead batteries stretch across some 30 acres of high desert, organized in piles and boxes that are covered to shield them from the western Nevada sun. This vast field is where Redwood Materials stores the batteries it harvests from electric vehicles, laptops, toothbrushes, and the litany of other...
Digging for minerals in the Pacific’s graveyard: The $20 trillion fight over who controls the seabed
Solomon Kahoʻohalahala steadied himself on the double-hulled voyaging canoe called Hōkūleʻa as a 15-foot swell rose and the vessel took off under the midday sun. He had been paddling since dawn along the south shore of Molokaʻi, and his arms were tired. As the canoe reached the notoriously gusty channel...