Articles by Grist staff

Spite of the Living Dead

Interior Department official disparages endangered-species recommendations If Julie MacDonald had a farm (e-i-e-i-o), all the animals would die. At least six times since 2004, MacDonald — deputy assistant secretary of the Interior Department — has rejected staff recommendations to protect susceptible flora and fauna under the Endangered Species Act, documents show. The Interior Department’s inspector […]

Hauntingly Familiar

Groundbreaking climate report inspires predictable political responses World reaction to yesterday’s U.K. report linking climate change with possible economic ruin has been swift — and painfully predictable. While British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his likely successor Gordon Brown hailed the findings, Kyoto-resisters Australia and the U.S. offered more lukewarm responses. Australian Prime Minister John […]

Let’s Talk About Rex, Baby

Senators ask ExxonMobil to stop funding climate-change deniers ExxonMobil should “end any further financial assistance” to climate-change-denying lobbyist groups, say Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) in a scathing letter sent to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson on Friday. According to an upcoming report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, the oil behemoth funded […]

Goodbye Kitty

Japan struggles to save threatened Iriomote wildcat As Japan seeks to make amends for long prioritizing industrialization over environmental safeguards, the case of the Iriomote wildcat is proving that redress isn’t easy. The cats, suspected to number less than 100, live solely on the 110-square-mile island of Iriomote. But, as a mascot for the green […]