Latest Articles

Pew, Those Oceans Smell

Pollution from inland sources of fertilizer and manure is threatening bays and estuaries in the U.S., according to a report released this week by the Pew Oceans Commission. The study stated that nitrogen and ammonia from these sources are producing toxic algae blooms, depleting oxygen levels, and destroying sea grasses and coral reefs. Leon Panetta, […]

Shock Diesel

The Bush administration announced yesterday that it would let stand regulations put forward by former President Clinton to cut diesel exhaust from big trucks and buses by 95 percent. The new rules will require oil refiners to reduce the sulfur content of highway diesel fuel by 97 percent and force manufacturers to install pollution control […]

Phenomenal

In one of the Bush administration’s first official statements on global warming, U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman said this week that the administration may push to place limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. “There is no question,” she said, “that global warming is a real phenomenon, that it is occurring.” She said […]

30 Minutes, or It's Free Trade

In an attempt to grease the wheels in the trade battle over softwood lumber, the Canadian embassy last week sent Domino’s pizzas to 170 members of the U.S. Congress, focusing in particular on members who have environmental concerns. The Canadians were careful to deliver “politically correct” pizzas: meatless and packaged in boxes made from recycled […]

Pavement is replacing the world's croplands

As the new century begins, the competition between cars and crops for cropland is intensifying. Until now, the paving over of cropland has occurred largely in industrial countries, home to four-fifths of the world’s 520 million automobiles. But now, more and more farmland is being sacrificed in developing countries with hungry populations, calling into question […]

A personal appreciation of Grist contributor Donella Meadows

I was once speaking with Donella Meadows in her Dartmouth College office a few years ago, back when I taught with her in the environmental studies program. She was responsible for my appointment in environmental literature and writing and had become a mentor I could call on for advice at any time, no matter how […]

Appalled By Sprawl

Three key Bush administration officials promised governors yesterday that they would work to discourage urban sprawl, renew urban communities, and invest in public transportation. Speaking at the National Governors Association, the heads of the U.S. EPA, Housing and Urban Development Department, and Transportation Department said that President Bush’s budget, to be unveiled tonight, will include […]

A Lott of B.S.

Saying the U.S. is facing an energy crisis, Republicans in the Senate yesterday proposed an overhaul of the country’s energy policy that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas drilling and provide billions of dollars of tax incentives and spending to spur additional domestic oil exploration. Senate Majority Leader […]

Sherpas Attack

Nepali sherpa climbers will be paid to bring trash down from Mount Everest under a new program by the Nepal Mountaineering Association. Bhumi Lal Lama, an official with the group, says sherpas may earn up to $6 for each pound of garbage they carry from various upper camps to base camp. The worst site is […]

Smoggy Went a Courtin' and They Did Fail, Uh-huh

In one of its most significant environmental decisions in years, the U.S. Supreme Court today rejected industry arguments and unanimously upheld the way the federal government sets clean air standards. The trucking and manufacturing industries argued that the U.S. EPA should consider compliance costs and not just health benefits in setting the standards. But Justice […]