Articles by Grist staff

Tit for Habitat

Habitat conservation plans poorly monitored, sporadically effective Today, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer kicks off a big three-day series on the increasingly ubiquitous but nonetheless poorly understood and poorly monitored phenomenon of habitat conservation plans (HCPs). Congress authorized the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to administer such plans in 1982, but it wasn’t until the late ’90s […]

An interview with longtime anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott

Helen Caldicott. Photo: Greg Barrett. In 1971, Helen Caldicott had an epiphany: all life on earth could end at any moment, simply because a few pig-headed people imagined they could “win” a nuclear war. A decade later, she had given up her promising medical career to devote her life to nothing short of saving the […]

Iceland Is Your Land

Last chance to enter Iceland sweepstakes OK, some of you are sick of hearing about Iceland, but others of you are sitting on your hands, bouncing a little, like the kid who had to pee in math class but wasn’t allowed to get up. Because you are dying to know if you’re going to win […]

Talkin’ Bout Microgeneration

Microgeneration may energize future With an energy crisis looming and national governments slow to adopt clean, renewable sources, some small communities are creating their own solutions — and their own energy. Case in point: Beddington Zero Energy Development in South London (BedZED for short), a carbon-neutral sustainable-housing estate employing “microgeneration,” or small-scale, local, renewable power […]