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Billions and Billions Observed

World Population to Level Off at About 9 Billion, Says U.N. Population growth is expected to slow dramatically over the coming decades, but the number of people on the planet is still likely to reach 8.9 billion by 2050, up from 6.3 billion today, according to a new U.N. report released yesterday. Granted, that’s not […]

‘Tis Better to Give to Grist Than to Buy Dumb Stuff

Grist Has a (Slightly Self-Serving) Fix for Your Holiday Woes Holiday gift giving got you down? Feeling oppressed by teeming malls, fake pine scent, and the pressure to buy, buy, buy? Put your mind at ease — Grist can show you the way out of this madness. Instead of giving your dad another tie, and […]

David Doherty, Peace Corps in Haiti

David Doherty is a refugee from all things functional or organized. In other words, he is a Peace Corps volunteer serving in Haiti. Monday, 8 Dec 2003 CAMP PERRIN, Haiti Haitian proverb: Se pa bon pou yon moun konnen twop. “It’s not good for a person to know too much.” Today is the latest critical […]

Fres-yes!

Fresno Launches Big Solar Project Fresno, Calif., is aiming to put itself on the clean-energy map with a major new solar-power project that will be one of the largest of its kind on the West Coast. The Fresno City Council voted last week to spend $4.7 million to put solar panels on a number of […]

Get Off Your Phone and Fly

Give Us This Day Our Daily Frankenbread

Next GM Product to Hit Market Could Be Your Daily Bread The stakes in the debate over genetically modified (GM) food are about to jump significantly, as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration prepares to complete a safety and nutrition review of wheat that has been genetically altered by biotech giant Monsanto. To date, GM […]

Putin: His Foot in His Mouth?

Russia Might Ratify Kyoto Protocol, After All Mark Twain once famously commented that rumors of his death had been greatly exaggerated. Much the same could be said of the Kyoto Protocol on global climate change, which was pronounced dead by gun-jumping news sources (Grist among them, we regret to say) when Andrei Illarionov, chief economic […]

News Flash: Air Pollution Bad for You

Exposure to Air Pollution Increases Risk of Developing Lung Cancer Air pollution has long been associated with respiratory ailments such as asthma. Now, it seems that poor air quality may also increase the risk of developing lung cancer. A team of Norwegian experts studied more than 16,000 men over nearly 30 years and found that […]

The Icky 500

New EPA Chief Calls for Cleaner Air in 500 Days Newly minted U.S. EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt gave his first major speech yesterday, promising to embark on the “most productive period of air-quality improvement in American history.” The former Utah governor spoke of a 500-day plan for cleaner air but offered no details on it. […]

Markey-Mark and the Nukey Bunch

GAO Finds Shortage of Money for Closing Atomic Reactors Nearly half of the nuclear-reactor owners in the U.S. are not setting aside sufficient money to decommission the plants when they are shuttered, according to a report by the General Accounting Office. As a result, 42 plants might not have enough money to be safely shut […]