Articles by Grist staff

Tropic of Answer

South American ecotourism expert Charles Munn answers readers’ questions Readers sent oodles of questions to this week’s InterActivist, Charles Munn, leader of the nonprofit Tropical Nature, which promotes ecotourism and conservation in South America. Is traveling to developing countries exploitative? What are the prospects for budget ecolodges? How does one get started working in ecotourism? […]

I’m the Train Wreck They Call the City of New Orleans

New Orleans debris heads to the landfill, isn’t reused or recycled New Orleans is taking great pains to recycle the waste left by Hurricane Katrina. Wait, you believed that? We’re totally lying. Debris from the pummeled city is being dumped in the landfill by the truckload, including heaps of potentially reusable building materials such as […]

Pistil Whipped

Plants don’t absorb as much CO2 as expected, study finds Those who tout tree-planting as the answer to all the earth’s problems may have to go back to the drawing board (the planting board?): A new study in Nature finds that carbon dioxide-absorbing plants can’t hoover up quite as much of the greenhouse gas as […]

The Mass Is Always Greener on the Other Side

A green agenda on immigration should emphasize local production Regardless of their disagreements on other subjects, political elites in both major U.S. political parties believe above all in globalization — the notion that goods and capital should move freely over borders. But they believe that labor policy — i.e., the movements of people — should […]