Articles by Grist staff

Blind Spot

Controversy is roiling among scientists about the wisdom of focusing conservation efforts on protecting “hot spots,” areas that cover just 1.4 percent of the Earth’s terrestrial surface but are home to nearly half of all land-based plant species and more than a third of all land animal species. Since 1988, when biologist Norman Myers and […]

Lake Woe-be-here

The pristine environment around Lake Baikal in Siberia, the world’s deepest freshwater lake, is endangered by a joint Russian-Chinese plan to build an oil pipeline through the region, Greenpeace warned yesterday. A month ago, Russian and Chinese oil companies signed a 25-year deal to pump 30 million tons of Russian crude oil to China every […]

Down, but Not Out

Here’s a spot of good news: Releases of toxic chemicals by U.S. industries declined 15 percent between 2000 and 2001 (the most recent year for which data are available) and dropped by more than 50 percent since 1988. That’s the latest word from the U.S. EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory. Of course, that means there are […]

Clear and Present Danger?

For months, the U.S. EPA has withheld findings indicating that President Bush’s proposed “Clear Skies” legislation would lead to more pollution-related deaths than a bipartisan Senate bill to fight air pollution, and that the bipartisan bill would not be much more costly than Clear Skies. A leaked copy of the EPA’s data showed, among other […]