Articles by Grist staff

When You Wish Upon a Car

Car-Free Day: A good idea, but not without its difficulties Yesterday was Car-Free Day. Couldn’t you tell? Some 1,500 municipalities, the vast majority in Europe, participated, but the idea hasn’t really caught on in the U.S., outside of a few scattered cities. Reading the European news does not give one great hope that it ever […]

Water Racket!

Noise in the ocean is killing sea creatures The world’s oceans are getting noisier and it’s killing the creatures that live there, scientists say. One major culprit is oil and gas drilling, which involves low-frequency seismic pulses used to survey geologic strata; military sonar and large shipping vessels also generate their share of racket. The […]

States of Grace

States take the lead on renewable energy With the climate for renewable energy rather inhospitable at the federal level, states are taking the initiative. For example, a proposal before the New York Public Service Commission would require utilities to get 25 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2013; if it passes, New York […]

Hugh and Cry

Questions raised about influential conservation software In recent years, many large conservation plans — including the biggie that led Australia to ban fishing on a third of the Great Barrier Reef — were produced using a computer program called Marxan. Now, Australian professor Hugh P. Possingham, who helped develop the program in 1998, is raising […]