Articles by Grist staff

I Wish They All Could Be California Copycats

New York, Massachusetts to adopt tougher auto-emissions standards The New York State Environmental Board voted unanimously this month to adopt California’s toughest-in-the-nation rules for cutting automotive greenhouse-gassiness. The new rules, which will be phased in with 2009 model-year cars, aim to cut carbon dioxide emissions about 30 percent by 2016 — effectively improving auto fuel […]

Consciousness of Streams

Sprawl is dirtying streams and posing threat to U.S. drinking water Storm-water runoff threatens nearly every urban and suburban stream in the U.S., with serious implications for the country’s drinking water. Used to be rain fell largely onto meadows, forests, and fields, where it was absorbed by plants or filtered into the underground water table, […]

Against Montreal Odds

Pro-Kyoto Canadian gov’t likely to fall as Montreal climate meet begins Some 10,000 officials, activists, and scientists from more than 180 countries are gathering in Montreal today for a U.N. climate-change summit. It was supposed to be Canada’s moment to shine: Its influential and persuasive environment minister Stephane Dion, a strong Kyoto advocate, is chairing […]

Torch Songhua

China chemical-spill crisis eases, but water’s still not safe to drink As Americans gorged on turkey and pumpkin pie, a 50-mile-long toxic chemical spill was flowing along the Songhua River through northern China — the worst environmental disaster in the nation’s recent history. The crisis began on Nov. 13, when two explosions at a state-owned […]