Articles by Grist staff

An interview with Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx

Majora Carter is no ordinary environmental leader. For starters: She’s a woman, she’s black, and she’s not afraid to publicly challenge Al Gore. Majora Carter. Photos: Sustainable South Bronx In 2005, she was honored with a MacArthur “genius grant” for her work with Sustainable South Bronx, a group she founded to mobilize grassroots environmental activism […]

The Amazing Technicolor Dream Cote

Ivory Coast scandal highlights illegal dumping of toxic waste The recent dumping of toxic oil byproducts and subsequent deaths of eight citizens in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, has highlighted the shady world of illegal toxic-waste disposal. The practice of unloading nasties on developing countries was addressed by the U.N.’s Basel Convention in 1989 (you remember that […]

Can’t See the Forest for the Bling

Northern forests worth up to $250 billion a year, research says You thought they were just standing there, but forests in Russia, Canada, and other northern nations provide services worth up to $250 billion a year, say Canadian researchers. Water filtration, erosion control, habitat provision, greenhouse-gas absorption, and tourist attraction are highly lucrative pursuits that […]

Quick, Hide the Mung Beans

Unexpected levels of human-caused methane could mean trouble A rise in human-caused methane emissions — a phrase that certainly does not make us giggle — has been masked by a decline in natural methane releases, says a new report in Nature. Atmospheric concentrations of methane, less abundant than carbon dioxide but 20 times greenhouse-gassier, have […]