Articles by Grist staff

Good Luck, Little Buddy

First captive-bred giant panda released into the wild Good news for panda lovers (so, basically everybody): On Friday, the first of 103 giant pandas being bred at a Chinese research center was released into the wild. And panda-monium ensued! OK, not really. Four-year-old Xiang Xiang, whose name means “auspicious,” wandered without event from his cage […]

Rhymes With Blagojevich

Mercury emissions from power plants on the rise in the U.S. Mercury emissions in the U.S. fell by nearly 2 percent between 2003 and 2004, according to newly released federal data, but that small bit of good news masks a troubling trend. Mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants were actually up 4 percent over the […]

The Threat Set

Polar bear and hippo added to list of at-risk species Animals and plants considered threatened with extinction now number 16,119, including 20 percent of assessed shark and ray species, the polar bear, and the common (no-longer-happy) hippopotamus. So says the latest Red List of Threatened Species, produced after two years of study by the World […]

Sue and Improved

States to sue Bush admin over weak fuel-economy standards for SUVs Stop us if this sounds familiar: A group of states plans to sue the feds over lax environmental regulations. At this point, the feds have more suits than Armani! Their federalism federalisn’t! Take my states … please! (Hey, we have to liven these stories […]