Celebrating 25 years of Grist

Grist is 25 years old! In the constantly shifting media ecosystem of the past two-and-a-half decades, hitting that milestone is nothing to sniff at. What is a truly amazing achievement is that today, Grist is at its most ambitious, most influential, and most authoritative moment.

I remember being a young science journalist in New York, admiringly gawping along with some friends and colleagues at the fun the Grist team on the other side of the country seemed to be having. Our founder Chip Giller’s team in Seattle marshaled a unique mix of charm, smarts, and humor, and the sage advice from Ask Umbra served as a ladleful of sugar to help the medicine go down. Over the years, Grist has built a loyal audience, influenced powerful people and institutions, shaped climate coverage among other media, and had a hand in launching the careers of some fabulous journalists. That’s a pretty fantastic legacy.

And we’re continuing to build on it. In recent years, we’ve shifted Grist’s focus a bit, from informing readers about the climate crisis to analyzing its impacts, showing where progress is happening, and identifying those who are particularly vulnerable to both its causes and consequences. We’ve seen influence on government from the local level — such as the city of Santa Ana, California, mandating citywide lead-soil remediation in response to our environmental justice investigation — to the federal, like our series on climate change’s scrambling of the insurance industry prompting the Senate Budget Committee to hold an entire hearing on the subject. And we’ve hauled in a number of awards, including multiple Edward R. Murrows, several Online Journalism Awards, and a 2023 National Magazine Award for General Excellence.

Today, our work is more critical than ever — and we’re responding with our signature agenda-setting journalism, while enabling local news partners to help their audiences see themselves in the climate story and syndicating our content in hundreds of publications across the country and beyond. If you’ve been with us on our 25-year journey, thank you so much for your support and readership. If you’re new to Grist, we know you’ll find it an invaluable resource now and in the future.

To the next 25 years!

“I cannot tell you how many times a day I start a sentence by saying ‘I was reading on Grist that …’”

From our archives

How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic: Responses to common arguments

Talking with a climate skeptic can sometimes feel like a tug-of-war. We’re here to support you.

“You give me the resources I need to be a stronger participant in the movement for environmental justice.”