Articles by Grist staff

Communing with nature

As The Gates exhibit in Central Park closes, another enviro-themed art piece will take its place. The equally ambitious project will feature some 200 large-scale photographs, a theater running an hour-long film on continuous loop, and a "floating library" featuring pages of the artist's writings projected onto screens.

The multimedia exhibition is the work of Canadian photographer Gregory Colbert, whose collection includes images of humans communing, or rather "collaborating" with animals ranging from elephants to cheetahs to whales. "When you collaborate across species and break down those barriers, extraordinary things happen," Colbert says of his work.

The Twilight of Zoning

New Oregon law takes aim at smart-growth rules, excites developers Oregon’s recently passed Measure 37 is threatening to sprawlify the state, even as it acts as a model for property-firsters across the nation who want to ease development restrictions. The measure mandates that the government compensate private landowners if zoning or land-use restrictions reduce the […]

The Loan Arranger

U.S. plans to subsidize four new Chinese nuke plants A nearly $5 billion proposed loan package from the U.S. government to British-owned Westinghouse Electric Corp. to build four massive nuclear reactors in China is encountering a flurry of objections. The objections are not about the nuclear waste that would result, or reactors’ vulnerability to terrorist […]

Kids Absorb the Darndest Things

Lower IQs in mercury-exposed children cost U.S. billions, study says The effects of mercury on fetal development are costing the U.S. economy $8.7 billion a year, says a new study. Some 317,000 to 637,000 children born in the U.S. each year have been exposed to unsafe mercury levels in the womb, and many of them […]