Elizabeth Grossman

Elizabeth Grossman

Elizabeth Grossman is the author of High Tech Trash, Watershed: The Undamming of America (Counterpoint Press, 2002), and Adventuring Along the Lewis and Clark Trail (Sierra Club Books, 2003). She is also the co-editor of Shadow Cat: Encountering the American Mountain Lion (Sasquatch Books, 1999).
Grossman’s writing has also appeared in a variety of publications, including Amicus Journal, Audubon, California Wild, Cascadia Times, Chicago Tribune, Environmental News Network, Grist, The Nation, New York Times Book Review, Newsday, Oregonian, Orion, the Patagonia catalogue, Salon.com, Seattle Times, Washington Post, and Yes! A native of New York City, she has a BA in literature from Yale University. She now lives a minute’s walk from the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. When not at her desk writing she's out exploring—hiking, camping, paddling, sketching, and watching birds.

Island Press

Thank You, Lizzie

By Katharine Sucher / On July 31st, 2017
Island Press is deeply saddened by the loss of Elizabeth Grossman, Island Press author, environmental reporter, and friend. Thank you, Lizzie, for your invaluable contributions to Island Press and to the environmental community as a whole. We join Civil Eats and others in mourning her loss and honoring her memory. From Civil Eats:
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Poor safety record no bar to winning government construction contracts

By Elizabeth Grossman / On April 24th, 2012
One might assume that when a government agency awards a private company a contract to do construction work - for bridge or sewer work or other public utility repairs, for example - evaluating the company's safety and health record would be a prerequisite. This is, however, not the case. As the government watchdog organization Public Citizen details in a new report, numerous government contracts have been awarded to companies with chronic poor health and safety records.
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A New Year, But Old Problems Persist: Reports of Child Labor and Export of Toxics Continue

By Elizabeth Grossman / On January 11th, 2012
Next month will mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birth. Given the last two centuries' stratospheric advances in technology and the past century's progress in human rights policy, one would think that child labor, dangerous and unhealthy working conditions, and the export of hazardous industrial refuse to poor countries and communities would be a thing of the past. But as several reports released last month show, Dickensian working and living conditions are still very much with us. Children continue to be engaged in hazardous manual labor instead of attending school.
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Assessing Emerging Challenges in U.S. Environmental Health

By Elizabeth Grossman / On August 11th, 2011
Lynn Goldman, a pediatrician and epidemiologist, has spent her professional life trying to understand and alleviate threats from environmental sources, including the impact of chemical exposures on children. Her interest in the field dates back to her childhood in Galveston, Texas, where she grew up along the Gulf of Mexico surrounded by oil refineries and chemical plants that lit up the night sky with eerie blue, green, and orange hues. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Goldman — a former assistant administrator of the U.S.