Articles by Grist staff

Readers talk back about kitty doo-doo, autumn leaves, and more

  Re: Litter Bugged Dear Editor: There’s some concern among sea-otter researchers in California that toxoplasmosis from cat feces may be infecting and killing the state’s threatened sea-otter population. Toxoplasma gondii is a cat parasite, and the otters may catch Toxoplasma cysts from sea water contaminated by cat feces. This disease could be decreased by […]

Don’t It Make My Brown Eggs Blue

U.S. bans imports of beluga caviar to help conserve sturgeon The U.S. — destination for 60 percent of the world’s beluga-sturgeon caviar — yesterday announced a ban on beluga imports from the Caspian Sea, where sturgeon stocks have plunged by about 90 percent in the past two decades, a casualty of pollution and unlawful harvests. […]

He’s Got His Head up His Act

House passes Pombo bill to overhaul Endangered Species Act On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would overhaul — critics say gut — the Endangered Species Act. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), passed on a 229 to 193 vote that didn’t break down along traditional party lines: 34 Republicans […]

Scientists trace SARS to bats, blame human mucking with nature

In a move likened to “a microbiological episode of CSI,” a team of scientists has uncovered the culprit behind a disease that shook the world — and that could very well strike again. Researchers announced today that they’ve traced the global SARS epidemic, which spread to 26 countries and infected thousands of people, to one […]