Articles by Grist staff

A coastal geologist explores the flaws in modeling nature

The New York Times yesterday published a short piece on a new book by coastal geologist (and InterActivist alum) Orrin H. Pilkey and his daughter Linda Pilkey-Jarvis, also a geologist. The book, Useless Arithmetic: Why Environmental Scientists Can’t Predict the Future, argues that nature’s unruliness — conditions are highly variable and uncertainties inevitable — makes […]

Readers write in about GOP pollster Frank Luntz, whaling activists, and more

  Re: And Now, a Word From Our Detractor Dear Editor: I read your interview with GOP uber-flack Frank Luntz last week and thought, “Poor Frank. Losing on all fronts, rejected by his party and outsmarted by his opponents.” Luntz was dis-invited from the GOP’s cool-kids caucus after the election because, in a comprehensive, post-November […]

Anything You Can’t Do I Can’t Do Better

E.U. sets emissions goals, will raise bar if other countries join Yesterday, European Union ministers agreed to a historic cut in greenhouse-gas emissions, and they’re prepared to take things even further if other nations join them (ahem). The Continent will aim for a 20 percent cut from 1990 emissions levels by 2020; they’d strive for […]

Yearning to Breathe Free

Study finds air-quality inequality in San Francisco Bay area According to a new study, people of color and poorer residents in the San Francisco Bay area breathe more than their share of polluted air. “We have a problem with the degree of environmental inequality … even though we regard ourselves as a region that is […]