Matt Simon

San Francisco

Senior Writer at Grist

@mrmattsimon.bsky.social Senior writer @grist. Formerly @wired. Book on microplastics: https://t.co/TMwRuuZp5j. [email protected]

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Articles

The smoke from Canada's wildfires may be even more toxic than usual

2 days ago | grist.org | Matt Simon

More than 200 wildfires are blazing across central and western Canada, half of which are out of control because they’re so hard for crews to access, forcing 27,000 people to evacuate. Even those nowhere near the wildfires are suffering as smoke swirls around Canada and wafts south, creating hazardous air quality all over the midwestern and eastern parts of the United States. The smoke is even reaching Europe.
The fix for parched Western states: Recycled toilet water

3 days ago | stacker.com | Matt Simon

If you were to drink improperly recycled toilet water, it could really hurt you—but probably not in the way you're thinking. Advanced purification technology so thoroughly cleans wastewater of feces and other contaminants that it also strips out natural minerals, which the treatment facility then has to add back in. If it didn't, that purified water would imperil you by sucking those minerals out of your body as it moves through your internal plumbing.
Funding to protect American cities from extreme heat just evaporated

3 days ago | envirolink.org | Matt Simon

Straddling the border with Mexico along the Rio Grande, the city of Laredo, Texas, and its 260,000 residents don’t just have to deal with the region’s ferocious heat. Laredo’s roads, sidewalks, and buildings absorb the sun’s energy and slowly release it at night, a phenomenon known as the urban heat island effect. That can make a hot spell far more dangerous than for people living in the surrounding countryside, where temperatures might stay many degrees cooler.
Funding to protect American cities from extreme heat just evaporated

3 days ago | grist.org | Matt Simon

Straddling the border with Mexico along the Rio Grande, the city of Laredo, Texas and its 260,000 residents don’t just have to deal with the region’s ferocious heat. Laredo’s roads, sidewalks, and buildings absorb the sun’s energy and slowly release it at night, a phenomenon known as the urban heat island effect. That can make a hot spell far more dangerous than for people living in the surrounding countryside, where temperatures might stay many degrees cooler.
Funding to protect American cities from extreme heat just evaporated

3 days ago | ecotopical.com | Matt Simon

Welcome to EcoTopical Your daily eco-friendly green news aggregator. Leaf through planet Earths environmental headlines in one convenient place. Read, share and discover the latest on ecology, science and green living from the web's most popular sites.
The fix for parched Western states: Recycled toilet water

3 days ago | conwaydailysun.com | Matt Simon

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The fix for parched Western states: Recycled toilet water

3 days ago | caledonianrecord.com | Matt Simon

kAmx7 J@F H6C6 E@ 5C:?< :>AC@A6C=J C64J4=65 E@:=6E H2E6C[ :E 4@F=5 C62==J 9FCE J@F—3FE AC@323=J ?@E :? E96 H2J J@FVC6 E9:?<:?8] p5G2?465 AFC:7:42E:@? E649?@=@8J D@ E9@C@F89=J 4=62?D H2DE6H2E6C @7 7646D 2?5 @E96C 4@?E2>:?2?ED E92E :E 2=D@ DEC:AD @FE ?2EFC2= >:?6C2=D[ H9:49 E96 EC62E>6?E 724:=:EJ E96?
Under the Trump administration, these mayors are localizing the fight against climate change

4 days ago | goodgoodgood.co | Matt Simon

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. ‍In the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, Justin Bibb was living in a tight, one-bedroom apartment in Cleveland, Ohio. He couldn’t open his windows because his home was an old office building converted to residential units — not exactly conducive to physical and mental well-being in the middle of a global crisis.
US Mayors Are Making Climate Action Personal-and It’s Working

5 days ago | motherjones.com | Matt Simon

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, Justin Bibb was living in a tight, one-bedroom apartment in Cleveland, Ohio. He couldn’t open his windows because his home was an old office building converted to residential units—not exactly conducive to physical and mental well-being in the middle of a global crisis.
The weird way that penguin poop might be cooling Antarctica

5 days ago | nationalobserver.com | Matt Simon

But the effort paid off, because Boyer and his colleagues found something peculiar about penguin guano. In a paper published on Thursday in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, they describe how ammonia wafting off the droppings of 60,000 birds contributed to the formation of clouds that might be insulating Antarctica, helping cool down an otherwise rapidly warming continent. Some penguin populations, however, are under serious threat because of climate change.