Articles by Grist staff

O Brother, Where Wal-Mart Thou?

Environmental lawsuits stymie Wal-Mart’s attempts to colonize California Retail Brobdingnagian and perpetual defendant Wal-Mart, having carpeted much of the U.S. in Supercenters, has its sights set on one of its last potential growth markets in the country: California. But the Golden State has proved a stormy climate for the hungry giant; dozens of lawsuits have […]

Chew on this

I received a letter from freelance illustrator Kirk Werner in response to my post on gum pollution. Werner wrote to tell me about his latest work, a children's book about gum littering written by Sherry Garr and titled a Grist-worthy Gumfounded. The Gumfounded website offers some peeks into the book and the main character Tia, who steps in gum and begins sticking to all types of litter, which she drags all the way to school. The duo is also planning to add books on air pollution and water conservation to the Tia series.

Eco-label watchdog Urvashi Rangan answers questions

Urvashi Rangan. What work do you do? I’m an environmental-health scientist and policy analyst at Consumers Union. I also manage two public-education websites. Consumers Union also publishes Consumer Reports magazine, and I do dip into the testing and publishing side of the organization, but my work is mostly on the public service, technical policy, and […]

Californication

Washington state House OKs bill adopting California auto-emissions rule The Washington state House this week passed a bill calling for adoption of California’s strict auto-emissions rules. If the Senate follows suit and the governor signs off, Washington would follow in the footsteps of six other states that have opted to follow California rules instead of […]