Latest Articles

Belugas listed as endangered over Sarah Palin’s objections

Despite opposition from Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, beluga whales in the Cook Inlet have been declared endangered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The agency estimates that only 375 belugas currently frolic in the inlet, down from some 1,300 in the 1980s. Restricting subsistence hunting by Native Alaskans has not helped the problem, says […]

‘What is this ‘clean coal,’ anyway?’

The Christian Science Monitor dissects “clean coal.”

Concord vs. Keynes in the nation’s editorial pages

Ruth Marcus gets it wrong: [The economic crisis] could give the next president more maneuvering room to extricate himself from unaffordable campaign promises and to build political consensus for painful but necessary budgetary choices. Nobel economics prize winner Paul Krugman gets it right: And this is also a good time to engage in some serious […]

From Summer to Starr

Heel the world Summer Rayne Oakes and Payless make quite the pair … of shoes. The duo are stepping up to offer a line of eco-friendly kicks made from organic cotton, hemp, and recycled materials — all at a price even Joe the Plumber can love. Elephant out of room Hey Ranger, Coming 2 town. […]

Senate race in North Carolina finds both candidates slinging oil

Another race where energy issues have been top fare this year is the North Carolina race, where Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole is defending her seat against Democratic challenger Kay Hagan. It’s a race where both candidates have accused the other of being in the pocket of Big Oil, and the crude has been flying for […]

Cloud Cult story the Weather Channel doesn’t want to share

ForecastEarth, the eco-focused show on the Weather Channel, did a great piece on the band Cloud Cult last week. (Follow Grist’s Cloud Cult obsession here.) However, they have chosen not to make the video embeddable on other sites, despite using a service that offers that option. That drives me nuts. So in a useless and […]

Bush signs railroad-safety law, giving $13 billion to Amtrak

President Bush on Thursday signed a measure into law that provides some $13 billion to Amtrak and other passenger rail. The funding, which Bush originally opposed, is a companion piece to a railroad-safety bill; the legislation was pushed quickly through Congress after a Sept. 12 train collision in Los Angeles that killed 25 people and […]

Grist poll: Which candidate has bucked his base more on the environment?

Now that we know both presidential candidates are OK with occasionally being unpopular — especially when it comes to the environment — who do you think has differed more from his base on this issue? </object&gt Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Obama cannot politically afford to take the kind of bold green stances enviros are hungry for

At Wednesday night’s debate, in the course of arguing that he is not overly beholden to his party or interest groups, Obama said something that is predictably provoking umbrage among enviros: "I support clean coal technology. Doesn’t make me popular with environmentalists." To many greens, this is just the latest insult from a campaign that […]

Gas-efficient and diesel ‘city’ cars are creating a buzz

This Guardian story was written by reporter Bibi van der Zee. Grist is a member of the Guardian’s Environment Network. —– The Paris Motor Show is so dazzling, so enormous and so festooned with models, champagne bars and plasma screens that it almost convinces you that everything is marvelous. The car salesmen are all smiles […]