All articles from Grist
Disasters destroyed their homes. Then the real estate ‘vultures’ swooped in.
“We buy homes” companies are procuring disaster-damaged properties for cheap. Survivors say they're taking advantage of tragedy.
Workers are facing dangerous heat — even inside fast-food restaurants
Rising temperatures and chronically broken cooling systems are turning the lunch rush into a deadly risk for some workers.
How we mapped Chicago’s lead pipe problem and what we learned
Here’s what we found, how to know if you’re at risk, and how to replicate our work.
Chicago has the most lead pipes in the nation. We mapped them all.
Here's what the data reveals about who's most at risk.
Lead pipes are everywhere in Chicago. Here’s how to protect yourself.
How to test your water, get free filters, and find other help.
How a Koch-funded campaign is trying to reverse climate action in Vermont
In one of the bluest U.S. states, Americans for Prosperity is making inroads against climate action.
We now know just how much climate change supercharged Hurricane Katrina
Two decades after the devastating storm, scientists can more easily determine how much global warming is intensifying tropical cyclones.
20 years after Katrina, New Orleans’ levees are sinking and short on money
The city’s $14 billion flood system faces new threats from climate change, land subsidence, and Trump budget cuts.
Why the US government is trying to revive the climate change ‘debate’
The Department of Energy is calling for "honest dialogue." It looks a lot like a playbook from the past.
As the Trump administration shrinks the USDA, rural farming communities are left to pay the price
Inside the program cuts, workforce purges, and secretive reorganization of the Department of Agriculture.
Trump administration halts construction of nearly finished offshore wind farm
Ørsted’s Revolution Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island is hit with a stop-work order over vague “national security” concerns.
‘Alligator Alcatraz’ must close, but the fight isn’t over
A judge sided with the Miccosukee Tribe and said the ICE detention center must close. Florida officials have already appealed.
FEMA now requires disaster victims to have an email address
Workers at FEMA worry that demanding disaster survivors access services using email could shut out people without internet connectivity from receiving government aid.
A coal-fired plant in Michigan was supposed to close. But Trump forced it to keep running at $1M a day.
The community had big plans for the facility site, until the Trump administration ordered it to stay open, a move it extended this week.
In the wake of destructive floods, Wisconsin youth sue state utility regulator over failure to consider climate change
The case is part of a growing movement to force climate action through the courts, led in part by Indigenous youth.
Antarctica is in extreme peril
"Abrupt changes" threaten to send the continent past the point of no return, a new study finds.
How Texas flood relief got caught in a high-stakes political battle
As a fight over voting districts consumes the Texas legislature, funding for flood relief remains elusive.
Inside a Georgia beach’s high-tech fight against erosion
Armed with drones and lasers, scientists are creating detailed 3D maps of Tybee Island’s shifting shoreline.
US mines are literally throwing away critical minerals
There’s enough lithium in one year of U.S. mine waste to power 10 million electric vehicles.
Trump’s Interior Department is turning environmentalists’ legal playbook against them
Federal laws meant to protect land and wildlife are being misused to curb wind and solar development across the U.S.
Struggling to get in your daily steps? It may be your city’s fault
Can urban design actually motivate people to walk more? New data says yes.
Clearing debris after a storm is big business. For some communities, it’s also a burden.
How the necessary work of cleaning up can make an even bigger mess.
After the Texas floods, when is the right time to ask what went wrong?
The rare window to ask tough questions opens after a disaster. Too often, it closes before accurate answers can emerge.
A startup promised 45,000 EV jobs to struggling towns. They’re still waiting.
Desperate for jobs, three communities embraced a bold electric vehicle promise. Now, they’re left with questions — and no jobs.
Trump administration reopens $5B EV charging program after losses in court
The Transportation Department says states can reapply for funding under the Biden-era program it had halted. Groups fighting the freeze in court decry the delay.
The International Seabed Authority’s war with itself
As the U.N. body faces an American threat to its jurisdiction over deep-sea mining, diplomats have more or less left all the important questions unanswered.
‘Consensus kills ambition’: UN plastics treaty talks end without an agreement
Procedural hurdles once again foil progress on a global agreement to end plastic pollution.
The Trump administration’s assault on science feels eerily Soviet
The U.S. is drifting away from science and climate reality. So why does life seem so normal?
California is sunsetting oil refineries without a plan for what’s next
Faced with a looming fuel crunch, some worry the state will push aside its efforts to combat climate change to keep gasoline flowing.
Factory farms don’t just stink — they make it harder to breathe, too
New maps show that where animal feeding operations exist, higher percentages of Latino and uninsured residents also live.