Latest Articles

Bottled water flies off the shelves, but smart money is on filter systems

Thirsty for facts on bottled water? When the United Nations declared 2003 the International Year of Freshwater, they likely weren’t thinking of Perrier. And yet bottled water has become freshwater’s most high-profile face, from Evian to Dasani and scores of other brands that now crowd store shelves. Why have products that cost 240 to 10,000 […]

Blame Canada

British Columbia Mine Plan Has Montanans in an Uproar Coal-mining and natural-gas drilling projects could soon get underway in British Columbia’s Flathead Valley, just north of the U.S. border and Glacier National Park, but a group of Montana enviros and politicians is bringing international pressure to bear in an attempt to stop them. The valley […]

Hear No Evil

Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Two Environmental Cases Such is the power of the U.S. Supreme Court that its refusal to hear a case can carry as much weight as a ruling, and two such refusals this week have enviros buzzing. One case involved the U.S. EPA’s authority to force the Tennessee Valley Authority — […]

A Pressing Matter

Journalist Covering Eco-Radicalism Gets Snared in Story A journalist covering attempts by Earth First! activists to thwart a cougar hunt on federal land has been arrested along with one of the activists and charged with trespassing and disabling mountain-lion traps. The case raises troubling and knotty questions about the First Amendment and the ability of […]

A long-time conservationist and budding politician answers questions

What work do you do? As the executive director of the Turner Endangered Species Fund, I work to ensure the persistence of imperiled species and their habitats, with an emphasis on private land. More generally, I work to advance the science of restoration ecology and ensure that an increasing number of people live more simply, […]

Absolutely Cabulous

New Hybrid Taxis Taking Off Once the sole province of eco-conscious consumers willing to pay a little extra to reduce their environmental footprint, gas-electric hybrid vehicles have found an eager new consumer demographic: taxi services. In urban areas from Vancouver to Boston to New York City, taxi operators are getting hep to the benefits of […]

Drain Oh!

Harsh Western Drought May Be the Norm, Say Scientists The harsh drought that has been plaguing the American West in recent years is set to produce a raft of environmental, political, and social crises, but we’d better get used to it, say some scientists. Research into the drought cycles of the past 800 years increasingly […]

From Russia With Wood

Russia’s Siberian Forests in Danger The Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia is Russia’s most significant timber-producing area, which is saying something in a massive country 70 percent covered by forest. But the region’s forests are threatened from all sides, say activists. Illegal logging is rampant; in fact, up to 30 percent of all logging in Russia […]

You Do Have to Live Like a Refugee

Pacific-Island Dwellers Suffer from Global Warming Now is not a good time to live on a small Pacific island. Thanks to global warming, many researchers say, species on such islands face a variety of perils. The living coral that surrounds the islands reacts to warmer ocean temperatures by bleaching, or as the vernacular has it, […]

Readers sound off on manipulated science, Sierra Club electioneering, and more

  Back to School, Craig Re: Craig’s List Dear Editor: Assistant Interior Secretary Craig Manson claims that abuse of science is one of the most “misbegotten” criticisms of the Bush administration. In the same Grist interview, he illustrated just how the administration commits such abuses. In defense of the administration’s use of science, Manson argues […]