Articles by Grist staff

All This Aggravation Ain’t Satisfactionin’ Us

Montreal summit wraps up with agreement to … have more summits The U.N. climate talks in Montreal ended this weekend with plenty of drama but little progress. The big news, such as it is, is an agreement by a coalition of some 150 nations to convene new talks to generate a set of binding greenhouse-gas […]

New carnivore species may become next extinction sob story

Researchers have announced that they may have discovered a new species of carnivore in the forests of Borneo. Dubbed "the beast of Borneo," the creature resembles a lemur or small civet-type cat and was caught via "camera traps" -- motion-activated cameras left in clearings and on forest trails. Scientists say that if the animal is indeed a new species of carnivore, it would be the first found in the area since the Borneo ferret-badger was first seen in 1895.

Enviros point out that the possible discovery of a new carnivore species just emphasizes how little we know about remote, but ecologically diverse areas such as Borneo's tropical forests -- regions that are also valuable to destructive industries like commercial hardwood logging.

Will this cat-fox-lemur critter even survive long enough for us to determine what to call it?

I certainly hope so. Especially if it means we get to name it something fun. Like ferret-badger.

Pink elephants on parade

Do elephants get drunk on marula fruit, which ferments after falling from the marula tree?

No! Or, so say these researchers.

But:

"Elephants indisputably like booze, especially Asian elephants where we have many reports of them getting into rice-wine stores and drinking the stuff," said lead author Steve Morris.

Drunk elephants. Ha!

Potent quotables

Speaking of good quotes, check out this list of "notable quotes" from the UN Climate Conference.