Articles by Grist staff

Bad Seed

Despite European Objections, GM Agriculture Marches On Worldwide use of genetically modified crops grew by 15 percent last year, according to a report by the industry-backed International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications. In 1996, the year GM crops were made commercially available, 4.3 million acres were used for biotech cultivated crops. By 2003, […]

Flu Dunnit

Enviro Disruptions Will Cause More Animal Diseases to Jump to Humans In coming years, diseases — primarily viruses — passed from animals to human beings pose one of the principal threats to world health, warned a conference of scientists at the Royal Society in London yesterday. Environmental disruptions ranging from deforestation to population migration to […]

Viscous Cycle

In Ironic Twist, Thawing Tundra Causes Trouble for Alaska’s Oil Industry Global warming — brought about in part by the burning of fossil fuels — has raised temperatures in Alaska and reduced the length of the “frozen season” during which oil-prospecting convoys are allowed to traverse the landscape. The past three decades have seen the […]

Orangutangle

Orangutans Face Possible Extinction in 20 Years, WWF Says Orangutans may have just two decades left if current trends continue, the World Wildlife Fund warned yesterday. One of the four great ape species, orangutans are rapidly disappearing from their only remaining native habitat on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. […]