Articles by Grist staff

The Sludge Retort

Microbiologist and former U.S. EPA employee David Lewis testified to Congress yesterday that the agency had knowingly used unreliable data when denying a petition to stop the use of sewage sludge as fertilizer. The petition, from 73 labor, environmental, and farm groups, was denied last December based on data from two Georgia dairy farms that […]

I’d Like to Buy the World a … Juice?

Soft drinks made in India by PepsiCo Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. contain levels of toxic pesticides — including lindane, DDT, malathion, and chlorpyrifos — high enough to cause cancer or immune-system failure over time. Such was the conclusion of an Indian parliamentary report released yesterday, confirming similar findings by the Delhi-based Center for Science and […]

Nano, Nano

A new paint set to go on sale in Europe in March promises to absorb the most noxious gases from automobile exhaust. Invented by British company Millennium Chemicals, Ecopaint contains spherical nanoparticles of titanium dioxide and calcium carbonate, suspended in a base of polysiloxane (a silicon-based polymer). Hey, wake up, the good part is coming! […]

Worries over federal deficit could dim prospects for energy bill

Oh, the irony. The same week Fortune magazine released a special “Climate Collapse” issue warning its double-starched readers of “growing evidence” that “abrupt climate change may well occur in the not-too-distant future,” Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate have been attempting yet again to push through a controversial energy bill that would only intensify the […]