Articles by Grist staff

A for Initiative

Colorado Campaign for Renewable-Energy Initiative Kicks Off In November, Colorado citizens will vote on the first-ever statewide initiative on renewable energy. The Colorado Renewable Energy Initiative would require that the state’s major utility companies generate 10 percent of their energy from renewable sources — solar, biomass, wind, hydro, and geothermal — by 2015. A bipartisan […]

Filet Retardant

Farmed Salmon Contain Flame Retardants The same research team that found more PCBs in farmed salmon than in wild salmon has found similar results for another scarily acronymed family of chemicals: PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, flame retardants found in electronics and fabrics. PBDEs have not been conclusively proven to cause harm to human health, […]

If Not for You Meddling Kids …

Judge Spanks Commerce Secretary Over Dolphin-Safe Rules In a ruling made public yesterday, a federal judge resoundingly rejected the efforts of Bush administration officials to relax “dolphin-safe” standards for tuna. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson’s ruling was, to put it mildly, strongly worded. “The record is replete with evidence that [Commerce Secretary Donald Evans] was […]

Mineral Wrongs

Natural Resources Fuel Brutal War in Congo In the U.S., communities can be inconvenienced by the extraction of natural resources — increased air pollution, say, or loss of undeveloped land. But it’s worth remembering that in other parts of the world, the stakes are quite a bit higher. Case in point: the cruelly named Democratic […]