Articles by Grist staff

I’ve Seen the Smokestack and the Damage Done

New Jersey Plays Hardball With Polluters In the most aggressive attack on polluters anywhere in the nation, New Jersey is demanding that more than 80 companies pay penalties for causing harm to the environment. The penalties are not simply the price tag of a cleanup; rather, they are natural-resource damage claims, under which companies must […]

The Ice, Man, Cometh

Arctic’s Biggest Ice Shelf Breaks Apart, Signaling Increased Warming A 3,000-year-old ice shelf in the Arctic Ocean, the largest in the Northern Hemisphere, has broken into pieces over the past two years, highlighting significant warming trends, according to new research published in Geophysical Research Letters. Scientists said they couldn’t determine whether the melting was related […]

Wheelie Great

Car-Free Day Helps Clear the Air in Europe Citizens in more than 1,000 cities around the world were treated to cleaner air and less congested streets yesterday on the sixth annual car-free day. The event was particularly popular in Europe, where air pollution has had a higher profile since August, when poor air quality accompanied […]

Babes Up in Arms

Study Finds Troubling Levels of Flame Retardants in Breast Milk Fire-retardant chemicals used in household items from furniture to computers to coffee makers have been detected in American women’s breast milk at worrying levels, according to the first national study of the issue. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which have been linked to developmental difficulties and […]