Articles by Grist staff

A Spat on the Back

California governator at odds with biz lobby over plan to cut CO2 Arnold Schwarzenegger’s til-now cozy relationship with the California Chamber of Commerce has hit turbulence over the Republican governator’s ambitious proposal to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The chamber has denounced a preliminary report from the California EPA’s climate action team, which predicts that fulfilling Arnie’s […]

Fools Russia In

Russia to build oil pipeline within half-mile of world’s deepest lake A 2,550-mile-long oil pipeline is set to be built within 900 yards of the world’s deepest lake. And really, what could go wrong? Lake Baikal — home to a variety of unique species of flora and fauna and over 20 percent of the planet’s […]

Tomasita González, enviro-justice organizer, answers Grist’s questions

As a community organizer, Tomasita González of the SouthWest Organizing Project empowers and -- what else? -- organizes her community in Albuquerque, N.M., to battle environmental and economic injustice. As this week's InterActivist, González shares her thoughts about challenging mainstream green groups, being called crazy, and fighting back against polluters. Send her a question of your own by noon PST on Wednesday; we'll publish her answers to selected questions on Friday.

You’ve flung a long way, baby

I thoroughly enjoyed this short piece by a writer recently hit by a carelessly tossed cigarette butt.

Here's a taste (emphasis mine):

What I failed to appreciate is that as a smoker, you are, by nature, a rebel. You laugh in the face of polyps and emphysema. Yes, it's a hacking laugh that ends in a series of frightening coughs, but you do laugh. And unlike the rest of us scared little non-smoking hamsters who docilely put our garbage in garbage cans, you, brave puffer of toxic chemical additives, are not bound by something so arbitrary and frivolous as a trash receptacle. The world is your trash can. You defiantly blow plumes of noxious gas into its air. You nonchalantly toss crumpled cigarette packs into its waters. And, as you showed me, you disdainfully throw your used-up smokes onto its ground, even if they must first bounce off another human being before reaching land.

Ha. Good reading, but sadly, so true.