Articles by Grist staff

Spies Like Us

FBI terrorism unit investigating doings of peaceful green groups FBI agents working on behalf of the bureau’s counterterrorism unit have been gathering information on nonviolent environmental, civil-rights, and peace organizations for the past several years, according to Justice Department documents revealed in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The documents reveal that the […]

Slitherin’ Scholastic

Greens urge boycott of Harry Potter’s U.S. publisher J. K. Rowling and a coalition of eco-Muggles are giving props to Canadian publisher Raincoast Books for printing Rowling’s hotly anticipated sixth novel — Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, being released tonight — entirely on recycled paper. Canadian conservation group Markets Initiative estimates that Raincoast’s good […]

The Axis of Oil

China gets pushy about finding oil and gas supplies outside Mideast Historians cataloguing the unintended consequences of the Iraq war can add another to their list. Until 2003, China had been wooing Saddam Hussein, hoping to lay claim to some of Iraq’s undeveloped oil reserves. But the U.S.-led war, perceived by China’s leaders as a […]

A Dung Deal

Toxic pollution in Arctic likely caused by contaminated bird poop Native residents of northern Arctic regions are ridden with toxic chemicals — some of the highest body concentrations in the world — and new research has uncovered an unlikely culprit: guano, or as we prefer to call it, bird dookie. Scientists have long assumed that […]