Author Archive

Bernie’s new ad shows him standing against Big Oil

Grist: The Bernie Sanders campaign released a new ad in Iowa this week, and it`s not like anything you`ll see from the GOP side. For one thing, it`s not an attack ad. Rather than talk about Hillary Clinton`s haircut or Martin O`Malley`s shoe size, Sanders sticks to the issues - and the issue, in this ad, is Big Oil. The ad features two Iowa farmers, Patti Edwardson and George Naylor, discussing the Bakken pipeline, a proposed project that would move 570,000 barrels of crude oil through the state daily....

All is not OK: Oklahoma records 70 earthquakes in a week

Grist: The state experienced two of its largest earthquakes on record this week, measuring 4.7 and 4.8 on the Richter scale. And, the New York Times reports, this could be a harbinger of things to come. Big things. From the Times: The two quakes followed a series of smaller ones last week that peeled brick facades, toppled columns and caused a power failure in Edmond, an upscale Oklahoma City suburb. Some experts said those quakes hinted at the possibility of a larger shock. “I do think there’s a...

Greenland might be contributing more to sea level rise than we thought

Grist: The Greenland ice sheet is starting to look a lot like the ice luge that ruined your New Year`s Eve. Except, instead of drunk faces at the end of it, there`s an ocean. And instead of cheap vodka flowing down its surface, there`s meltwater. It shouldn`t surprise you that Greenland is slowly melting away and will ultimately contribute to what could be catastrophic sea level rise (and if it does surprise you, then welcome to 2016 - you`re going to want to sit down for this). But until recently, the...

World leaders adopt 1.5 C goal — damn well going to hold them to it

Grist: Here’s the crucial plaintive paragraph from the preamble to the Paris climate agreement released today, written in the almost indecipherable bureaucratese that attends this international circus: Emphasizing with serious concern the urgent need to address the significant gap between the aggregate effect of Parties’ mitigation pledges in terms of global annual emissions of greenhouse gases by 2020 and aggregate emission pathways consistent with holding the increase in the global average temperature...

Climate change is gonna be rough on farmers and eaters

Grist: When the apocalypse comes, it`ll be every man and woman for themselves. If zombies attack, then your once friendly neighbor will try to kill you for your food supply. If an epidemic sweeps the nation, then everyone with a sniffle will start to look like satan incarnate. If - god forbid - the internet goes down, then billions of people around the world will suddenly devolve into complete lunatics incapable of functioning without GPS, emojis, and the morphine drip that is social media likes. And...

Pope Francis warns environmental destruction could wipe out humanity

Grist: Pope Francis issued a stark warning to the United Nations on Friday morning, telling world leaders assembled for the General Assembly that "large-scale destruction of biodiversity can threaten the very existence of the human species." His speech urged leaders to tackle the unfettered capitalism that he believes is the root cause of environmental destruction, and outlined a religious duty to protect the planet. He also declared a "right of the environment" alongside other fundamental rights like education,...

While you’ve moved on to other news, drought-parched California is still burning

Grist: Over the weekend, apocalyptic first person drive-throughs of burning hellscapes stormed through social media. Though they could easily be teasers for the next big disaster flick, this is no blockbuster movie. It’s California’s drought-fueled wildfire season. The latest inferno making headlines is the Valley Fire, which burned through 61,000 acres in just 17 hours. The devastation spread through the mountains of northern California’s Napa and Lake counties, destroying 400 homes and sending three...

This drought is so bad that even Seattle is running out of water

Grist: Hey, Seattle. Remember last winter? How pleasantly warm and dry it was, almost like you live somewhere reasonable and not in a pool of tepid water near Canada? Well, you’re paying for it now. In a new article on Investigate West, reporter Robert McClure looks at the future of the city’s dwindling supply, and the results are Not Good. Representatives from Seattle Public Utilities showed McClure models based on simulations of future climate patterns, and the forecast is quite bleak. McClure writes:...

Study finds a link between neonic pesticides and honeybee deaths

Grist: A new study, published on Thursday, shows a correlation between honeybee colony deaths and neonicotinoid pesticide usage in the United Kingdom. Neonicotinoids generally come as a seed coating. When the seed sprouts, it takes in the pesticide, which then protects it against predators. But if that plant flowers, small amounts of the pesticide will linger in the pollen and nectar, which may hurt the beneficial insects, like bees, visiting those blooms to feed. There`s some controversy about this:...

Thousands of felons are on the front lines of California’s forest fires

Grist: Here`s a kind of crazy stat: Between 30 and 40 percent of California`s forest firefighters are state prison inmates. The state has become a tinderbox of sorts from a four-year drought, and roughly 4,000 low-level felons are on the front lines of the state`s active fires. Here`s what`s going on: Why are prisoners fighting fires? For years, California`s prison system has operated a number of "conservation camps," in which low-level felons in the state prison system volunteer to do manual labor outside,...