Articles by Grist staff

EPA exaggerated claims about clean drinking water

That sinking feeling. The U.S. EPA claims it is successfully protecting the nation’s drinking-water supplies — but that claim seems to have sprung a leak. Earlier this month, the EPA’s Office of the Inspector General accused officials in the agency of consistently making bogus statements about improvements in the quality of America’s tap water. The […]

Good Label Manners

Today’s conscientious consumer has a plethora of choices at the supermarket: “Free-Range,” “Farm-Friendly,” “Organic,” and that warmest and fuzziest of warm-fuzzies, “Natural.” These labels all sound wonderful, but what do they mean? Some of them, it turns out, mean quite a bit, while others mean almost nothing. Bewildered shoppers can get the scoop on which […]

China “R” Us

China’s booming economy is straining the country’s energy resources to the breaking point. Last year its oil imports rose by a third, it became the world’s largest steel importer (surpassing the U.S.), its domestic coal production rose by 100 million tons — and still there were intermittent blackouts as electricity consumption jumped by 15 percent. […]

Natural Corn Killers

Genetically modified corn has crept into Mexican fields, despite a federal prohibition against the planting of GM crops, and indigenous people and small-scale farmers are protesting loudly against the intrusion. In response, the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, a body created through the NAFTA environmental side agreement, last week held a symposium on the […]