Articles by Grist staff

An Accident Waiting to Aspen

Aspens are dying mysteriously in the Western U.S. Aspens, the most widely distributed trees in North America, are rapidly dying in some Western states — and no one knows why. The culprit may be insects, or climatic stress, or overgrazing. Or all of those. Or none of them. It may be a lack of recent […]

Bird Mentality

New sightings of ivory-billed woodpecker in Florida Bird researchers have spotted ivory-billed woodpeckers 14 times in the past 18 months in a remote area of the Florida panhandle — on some occasions, two at the same time — according to a report in the Canadian online journal Avian Conservation and Ecology. The team of scientists […]

Orrin H. Pilkey, shoreline expert, answers questions

Orrin Pilkey. What work do you do? I am a retired professor in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke and am still actively engaged in research and writing. The North Carolina Coastal Federation is the only environmental organization I belong to because I want to make sure my views bear the stamp of […]

When Teshekpuk Comes to Shove

Sensitive Alaska wetlands spared from drilling plan — for now In good news for conservationists, the Department of Interior has announced willingness to exclude the sensitive Teshekpuk Lake wetlands from a region of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska that it wants to open to oil and natural-gas drilling. The move has little to do with concern […]