Kate Yoder, Author at Grist (original) (raw)

Articles by Senior Staff Writer Kate Yoder

Kate Yoder is a senior staff writer covering climate change through the lens of language, culture, and history. Her work has received a FOLIO: Eddie & Ozzie Award and a SEAL Environmental Journalism Award for bringing fresh perspective and social relevance to environmental issues. She has been at Grist since 2015 and is based in Seattle.

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Photo of downed utility poles lying sideways across the street

For decades, American politicians have been slow to take on climate change and curb carbon dioxide emissions, under the assumption that doing so might pass along costs to their voters. Ironically, their failure to rein in fossil fuel emissions has yielded the same result: Expenses for everyday Americans have soared as a result of more extreme flooding, fires, and heat.

“What’s striking is that already, households are bearing serious costs,” said Kimberly Clausing, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. She co-authored a paper from earlier this year finding that families were paying between 400and400 and 400and900 more each year because of the effects of climate change, with the costs above $1,300 in the 10 percent hardest-hit counties, many of them found in Florida, Louisiana, Nebraska, Colorado, and California.

On Wednesday, the Commerce Department reported that the annual inflation rate reached 4.2 percent in May, the highest rate in three years. Though the war in Iran is mostly re... Read more