Grist

Climate scientists have already established that Europe’s sweltering summer was the hottest on record. Now they are saying it was likely the deadliest as well, with their models showing that the extreme heat led to more than 50,000 excess deaths in cities alone. The continent has endured five scorching heat waves since May, with record-shattering temperatures in several countries. On the whole, it was about 5.2 degrees Fahrenheit (2.9 degrees Celsius) above the 1991 to 2020 average. Some days

What does going on a date have to do with fossil fuels? Everything, according to the petroleum industry.  One advertisement from the pipeline company Energy Transfer follows two people getting ready for a date, the man primping with hair gel, the woman applying lipstick, before meeting at a bar. “That connection was brought to you by petroleum products,” the narrator says. “But what if we lived in a world without oil and natural gas?”  The story rewinds to the beginning, except t

Freeing yourself from oil is a downright impossible task in modern America. You could put solar panels on your roof, bring tote bags to the grocery store, and drive an electric vehicle, but try as you might, your home would still be brimming with products derived from fossil fuels. Roughly 9 out of every 10 things in a typical home have some kind of chemical basis in petroleum, according to John Warner, an inventor who co-founded the field of “green chemistry.” It’s easy to miss all these inn

War-induced spikes in oil prices and the arrival of artificial intelligence are widening the economic gap between rich and poor countries, according to the International Monetary Fund’s October report on the world economy. Poorer countries that import most of their fossil fuels have suffered the worst consequences of the United States’ and Israel’s war on Iran, while wealthier countries have better withstood war-related shocks thanks to AI-related economic growth and diversified energy sys

Until recently, you’ve had no choice but to be a passive participant in the electrical grid, paying exorbitantly for the juice that flows into your home. But you’re about to play a much more active role — if you’re not already — and get paid to send power from your home battery or electric vehicle to the energy system. Even if you’re a renter, you may be able to buy solar panels that plug into a wall outlet, turning your balcony into your own tiny power plant. Earlier this month, a punishing

Peak tourist season had arrived in Ruidoso, New Mexico, and Mayor Lynn Crawford was campaigning to convince the public that the village was safe. A Republican with white hair and a Texas drawl, Crawford said he was frustrated with residents who were sharing warnings of flooding on social media. “They spout stuff off,” he said in a radio address on June 30, 2025. “And I don’t know why they’re so afraid. I do not understand it.”  The community had experienced severe flooding the previous s

The first signs of trouble are subtle.  The vinyl skirting flutters. Siding near the roofline pulls away. Then the 12 massive fans arrayed across the 14-foot-high Wall of Wind accelerate in unison, forcing air across the laboratory at highway speeds. The manufactured home begins to shudder on its supports. A roar fills the testing facility. The engineers keep cranking up the fans. Hundreds of pressure sensors dot the structure, but some of what the researchers are learning in this

Even when they’re young, the characteristic iridescent hues of the Arctic grayling are noticeable at the right angle. On a brisk morning in September, fish and wildlife biologist Sean Leask counted and measured hundreds of these fish, which were raised at the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians’ streamside rearing facility, located just outside Traverse City in northern Michigan.  “Some of these might be catchable by the end of next year,” Leask said. “I don’t know what

On the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump declared that the United States was experiencing a “national energy emergency.” The “harmful and shortsighted policies of the previous administration,” he wrote in an executive order, had left the nation’s energy resources “far too inadequate,” a situation that “causes and makes worse the high energy prices that devastate Americans.” Since then, Trump has attempted to use the emergency declaration to speed up permits for fossil fuel dev

It’s the second-most used material on Earth, it’s an environmental disaster, and it’s falling apart all around us. Meet concrete, the subject of a new feature-length documentary by John Wilson, a filmmaker with a knack for finding laugh-out-loud absurdity in the mundane. The History of Concrete stitches together quick cuts of handheld footage and deadpan narration in the same style as How To with John Wilson, the HBO show that made the filmmaker’s career. As in his episodes on “how to m

When one of the nation’s biggest investor-owned utilities, Pacific Gas and Electric, wanted to replace Merrian Borgeson’s aging gas service line in Berkeley, California, she asked the company not to do it. Borgeson, who is the California policy director for climate and energy at the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council, explained that the repair wasn’t necessary: She was in the process of fully electrifying her home and would be replacing her stove — the only gas appliance left in

In January 1966, a South African ship caught fire at sea. In port in Bristol, England, after firefighters pried open the smoking container, the conflagration spread and burned for five days. A little over a month later, a Liberian steamship caught fire near Rotterdam, ignited a storage area with barrels of petrol and sank. The month after that, a Danish ship caught fire off Long Beach, California, injuring three firefighters, killing a longshoreman and causing over a million dollars in estimated

The clean energy industry has learned the hard way that having the law on your side doesn’t always mean you win.  Since taking office for his second term, President Donald Trump has attempted to delay or cancel dozens of wind and solar projects. These projects all underwent extensive reviews to secure federal approval, but the Department of the Interior and other agencies have frozen their permits for vague “national security” reasons, or with no explanation at all. These attacks have al

In August of 2023, a series of wildfires broke out across Maui, killing more than 100 people, destroying thousands of homes, and causing billions in damage. Noelani Ahia, who is Kanaka Maoli and co-founder of Maui Medic Healers Hui, helped mobilize nearly 600 volunteers in Lāhainā, including doctors, nurses, and therapists.  Three years later, the housing and health crises remain acute. Maui Medic Healers Hui runs a free clinic, but Ahia wishes it had 10 more to address the community’s n

In my years as a psychotherapist, I’ve worked with many people facing similar struggles. One such pattern is embodied by a client I’ll call Emma (whose real name and identifying details I’ve changed for privacy purposes). She came to see me because, despite pursuing a climate career aligned with her values, practicing good self-care, and having a close community of friends, she couldn’t shake a persistent feeling of being “low.” She didn’t know what was missing. Emma was invited to an event a

Earlier this month, after a series of stops and starts, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced changes to a long-running program that is supposed to help farmers and rural small businesses stand up renewable energy projects.  The new rules, set to go into effect today, October 16, effectively make any solar power development ineligible for funding through the Rural Energy for America Program, or REAP. It’s the latest of multiple rollbacks by the second Trump administration that adv

Coal was on the way out. That’s how it looked last year, anyway, when the International Energy Agency forecast that global demand for the dirtiest fossil fuel had plateaued and was poised to start declining. But this year hasn’t gone as expected. The agency recently projected that coal consumption will climb to a record high of 8.94 billion metric tons in 2026. Headlines have declared that coal is “back in fashion” and making a “comeback.” So what changed? Blame it on the war in Iran, which c

You may have heard by now that heat pumps — which transfer warmth from outdoor air to an indoor space, instead of generating it like a furnace — don’t work when it gets really cold out. That’s incorrect, as models designed for frigid climes can keep you toasty even in the dead of winter. Don’t believe me? Look no further than the Nordic countries, which have fully committed to them despite the region’s not-exactly-balmy winters. OK, so heat pumps are more efficient than ever, which is why Ame

Brazilians filling out presidential ballots earlier this month saw three-term incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pitted against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. Environmental observers saw something else: a referendum on the future of the Amazon rainforest. “We are very serious about the risks for the Amazon if Flávio wins the election, because he is a climate denier,” said Carlos Nobre, a climate scientist currently at the University of São Paulo’s Institute for Advanced Studies. “If this candidat

On a Saturday morning in September, the game shop Dice Dojo was packed. Players sat shoulder-to-shoulder at tables lining the far North Side Chicago shop with board games stacked from floor to ceiling and a giant yellow Pikachu on the wall. They were eagerly waiting to crack open boxes of the latest Magic: The Gathering trading cards and face off in a tournament. Noel Camilotas spent most of the day pacing past rows of packed tables and helping players decipher the rules of the hotly anticipa