Latest Articles

On the Mexican coast, little shrimp are causing big trouble

Just above the high-tide mark on the coast of northern Mexico, elegant fingers of pitaya cacti rise far above the surrounding mesquite trees. Roseate spoonbills and frigatebirds sail silently overhead, a dolphin skirts the tangle of mangroves near the shore, and a fishing boat sputters out to the Sea of Cortez. On this muggy, almost […]

A Cartridge in a Pear Tree

It’s like a question some curious Grist reader might ask of Umbra, green guru extraordinaire: When your printer runs out of ink, what should you do with the empty cartridge? Turns out, plenty of schools and nonprofit organizations are collecting cartridges for recycling, motivated as much by good deals as good citizenship. Companies known as […]

Dredgers, Dredge Thyself!

In a sort of bureaucratic version of the ancient dictum, “Physician, heal thyself!”, the troubled U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced a plan to cleanse itself from within. Its leaders, including Civil Works Director Maj. Gen. Robert Griffin, have unveiled a three-tiered program to improve the Corps’ economic and environmental planning by enhancing internal […]

Hill’s Tree Blues

Just as some butterfly species head south every year, so apparently did Julia Butterfly Hill, the environmental activist who became an international cause celebre after she lived in a redwood tree in California for two years to protest planned logging in the area. Most butterflies don’t wind up in prison, but that’s precisely where the […]

Read the letter sent by 11 state attorneys general

On July 17, 2002, 11 state attorneys general (all of them Democrats) sent the following letter to President Bush, criticizing him for failing to impose strong federal measures to limit emissions of greenhouse gases and control global warming. (You may also download a PDF copy of the letter by clicking here.) The Honorable George W. […]

Around the Underworld in …

If Don Delillo and Jules Verne had ever collaborated on a novel, they might have written the story that’s currently reaching its denouement in Pennsylvania: “Around the World with 14,855 Tons of Trash.” That’s how much garbage left Pennsylvania 16 years ago, destined to earn a reputation as the best-traveled and least-wanted waste in the […]

Zap Dingbats?

The Montes Azules jungle in Mexico, near the Guatemala border, is one of the largest remaining pockets of tropical rainforest in North America — and the battle to save it has created unusual political bedfellows, to say the least. The Lacandon people, who have lived in Montes Azules for centuries and legally own much of […]

I’ll Have to Speak With My Attorney

In a letter being sent today to President Bush, 11 state attorneys general criticize the president for his failure to impose strong federal measures to limit emissions of greenhouse gases and control global warming. In addition to condemning the “regulatory void” created by the absence of federal action, the letter contends that environmental policies proposed […]

Re-tired

In other news about trash, the U.S. is making significant strides in the reuse and recycling of rubber tires. Last year, Americans got rid of about 281 million tires — some 5.7 million tons worth. In 1990, just one out of every 10 discarded tires was reused; now, that number has risen to nearly eight […]

Whistleblow While You Work

Citing laws designed to protect institutional whistleblowers, the Labor Department has ordered the U.S. EPA to reinstate a former investigator to “ombudsman-related duties.” The department concluded that EPA policy analyst Hugh Kaufman was removed from those duties in retaliation for complaining about the agency — in other words, for doing his job too well. As […]