Articles by Grist staff

Lung Disease

Deforestation in Brazil Leads to Massive CO2 Emissions Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has made that country one of the world’s top 10 sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide pollution. Often called the “lungs of the world,” the Amazon is bigger than the continental U.S., and loses an area bigger than New Jersey every […]

Reports of pending EPA enforcement actions are, shall we say, premature

Is this power plant in trouble? Nah. Photo: USGS. What’s this on the wires? The U.S. EPA is gearing up to prosecute a new batch of new-source review (NSR) cases against polluting power plants? Could it be that the Bushies have suddenly taken a keen interest in enforcing a Clean Air Act rule that they […]

Refiner-Ease

EPA Goes Easy on Oil Refineries The Fort Worth Star-Telegram is running an investigatory series (remember investigatory journalism?) on the EPA and its relationship to the nation’s 145 oil refineries. During the Bush administration, there’s been a precipitous drop in clean-air enforcement actions against refineries, which are some of the nation’s top polluters. They spew […]

Social Lite

More Businesses Flock to U.N.’s Social-Responsibility Compact The five-year-old United Nations Global Compact, which held its first summit in New York City last month, is the world’s biggest corporate social-responsibility initiative, with some 1,700 signatories. And what business wouldn’t want to sign on? In exchange for endorsing principles — principles with no mechanism for enforcement […]