Latest Articles

Umbra on making your parents’ home eco-friendly

Dear Umbra, I am a teenager and so I live with my parents. We recycle paper and some other products (mostly milk containers), but I don’t think our house as a whole is very eco-friendly. Since I’m not in charge, I can’t really go out and buy new appliances or anything like that. Should I […]

Umbra on having kids

Dear Wonderful Umbra, I truly love your column. You should give humor lessons to the rest of the Grist staff. My question concerns the environmental consequences of the decision to reproduce or not to reproduce. Your answer to Genevieve pointed out that the two biggest actions we can take to support a healthy environment relate […]

Umbra on that time of the month

Hey there, Umbra! I have a kind of gross-yet-pressing question for you: Are sanitary products (pads, etc.) environmentally friendly? I would think no, but what do you say? And what can I do about it? Thanks, JessicaTelford, Tenn. Hey there, dearest Jessica, How is it possible that we live in a country where diapers are […]

Buhl-dozed

After weeks of intense controversy, the Maryland Senate yesterday rejected Lynn Buhl as secretary of the environment, marking the first time in the state’s history that a governor’s cabinet nominee has been turned down. The 26-21 vote was a major blow to Maryland Republicans and Gov. Robert Ehrlich, Jr. (R), who had championed Buhl, a […]

Splurging General

Calling homeland security an environmental issue, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced yesterday that the Justice Department would crack down on companies that failed to protect their plants, pipelines, storage tanks, and transportation systems from terrorist attacks. The attorney general said the department would use civil and criminal lawsuits to enforce compliance with environmental and […]

PBDE Heebie-jeebies

Women in the San Francisco Bay Area have three to 10 times the amount of a dangerous persistent organic pollutant in their breast tissue as do either European or Japanese women, according to a study released yesterday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are flame retardants commonly used in foam, textiles, […]

Weapons of Mass Distruction

A coalition of activists in four states sued the federal government yesterday over the U.S. Army’s practice of incinerating chemical weapons. The coalition, led by the Kentucky-based Chemical Weapons Working Group, charges the Army with violating the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to consider less dangerous alternatives for disposing of the country’s chemical weapons […]

A conservation pioneer from Belize joins forces with the Nature Conservancy

Joy Grant was born in a house with no indoor plumbing in the tiny Central American country of Belize. That was 52 years ago. Last year, she accepted one of the top positions at the U.S.-based Nature Conservancy. For both parties, the marriage is a calculated gamble. Joy, oh, Joy. Photo: Deborah Knight. I spent […]

You Be Illin’

Almost 150 power plants, factories, and other businesses in Illinois are operating without federal clean-air permits, according to a statewide coalition of environmental and public-health organizations. Federal law required Illinois’ 733 worst polluters to pass emissions standards and receive appropriate permits by March 1998, but as of yesterday, four years after the deadline, only 80 […]

Skull and Bones

In a victory for environmentalists, public-safety advocates, and nuclear-watchdog organizations, the federal Atomic Safety and Licensing Board yesterday rejected plans for storing spent nuclear fuel in Skull Valley, Utah. The ruling was also a win for the state, which had lobbied against the proposed storage facility, slated to be built on the Skull Valley Goshute […]