Articles by Grist staff

Omission Accomplished

Environment Invisible at GOP Convention Attendees at the Republican National Convention, which wrapped up last night, would have been hard-pressed to discern the party’s positions on environmental issues. Other than a video touting the Bush administration’s efforts to avert wildfires in national forests (by, um, logging), green themes were markedly absent from the gathering. “I […]

Take a Walk on the Wild Side

The Wilderness Act Turns 40 Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and signed by Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Some 9 million acres were designated wilderness upon passage; 106 million acres are protected under the act today. Jimmy Carter signed the most land into wilderness, with 66.3 million […]

Pebbles: Bam, Bam!

China Gears Up to Build New, Smaller Nuke Plants China’s economy is expanding faster than Bruce Banner with road rage, straining against the limits of its current capacity for creating or importing energy — and pumping out some of the world’s worst air pollution. The plan? Go nuclear. This year China announced its intention to […]

If We Weren’t Already Fireproof, This Would Burn Us Up

Flame Retardants Found in Many Grocery-Store Foods A new study of grocery items like fish, meat, and dairy products revealed that virtually all of them contain detectable levels of PBDEs, human-made chemical fire retardants used in carpeting, electronics, and furniture that may or may not cause cancer. (We’ll get to the “may or may not” […]