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Survival of the Weakest

Humans Affecting Evolution of Other Species Lay scientists tend to think of evolution as a glacially slow process, with changes measured in hundreds of thousands of years, not decades. However, growing collaboration between ecologists and evolutionary biologists is highlighting a phenomenon called “contemporary evolution” — and it ain’t pretty. Turns out, by culling the largest, […]

The Lawn and Short of It

Organic Lawn Care Taking Off With the U.S. adding some 2 million acres of residential property a year, lawns are becoming a significant environmental issue. In addition to sucking up water — the average lawn drinks about 10,000 gallons of water over and above rainfall, says the U.S. EPA — lawns are frequently doused with […]

Ear Today, Ear Tomorrow

European Union Ends Ban on Genetically Modified Food The European Union today approved the import of a genetically modified, insect-resistant strain of sweet corn, thereby ending its six-year ban on new biotech foods. For now the corn can only be imported, not grown in Europe, but an application for its cultivation is pending — one […]

A Better Business Climate

Survey Finds Increasing Corporate Attention to Climate Change Climate change seems to be climbing the corporate agenda. An annual survey called the Carbon Disclosure Project — sponsored by a group of more than 90 institutional investors that collectively control some $10 trillion in assets — received nearly three times more responses this year than last […]

Loan Rangers

Activist Efforts to Pressure Corporations Find Some Success Speaking of corporations, it seems they may be more amenable to reforming their ways than governments — and with that in mind, activist groups are seeking eco-friendly commitments from companies. One group that’s had notable success is the Rainforest Action Network: In January, the group persuaded Citibank, […]

Jumbo Shrimp Problems

Shrimp Farming Wreaks Eco-Destruction, Group Says Shrimp farms are polluting land and oceans, destroying wetlands, and depleting wild fish stocks, wreaking environmental havoc on some of the world’s poorest countries, says the nonprofit Environmental Justice Foundation. The destruction is driven by a get-rich-quick attitude among farmers and aided and abetted by governments and development organizations, […]

No Dump Is an Island

Pacific Islands Drowning in Trash Many small island nations in the Pacific Ocean are slowly being smothered by trash, precipitating a crisis that has island enviros and politicians crying out for international assistance. The islands of Kiribati, for example, site of a bloody battle between U.S. and Japanese forces in World War II, are now […]

In No Russia

Russia Still Dithering Over Kyoto Russia continues to vacillate over whether to sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, and the stakes could not be higher. Kyoto requires that developed nations representing 55 percent of global carbon-dioxide emissions sign on before it comes into force. Currently countries responsible for 40 percent of emissions are accounted […]

Thanku

Our profuse thanks to all of you who donated to Grist during our Haiku Hullabaloo fundraiser. We couldn’t do what we do without your support. (And for the rest of you, even though the fundraiser proper is over, you can still give — we won’t turn you away!)

The Eagle Has De-listed

Bald Eagle No Longer Considered Threatened The American bald eagle is no longer at serious risk of extinction and will be taken off the federal endangered species list this year, Assistant Interior Secretary Craig Manson announced over the weekend. The striking national symbol’s decline — by 1963, just 417 known mating pairs of eagles remained […]