Articles by Grist staff

Country House, City House

Once upon a time, the Russian dacha, or country house, was the domain of the wealthy few, those who could afford to escape the grime and grit of Moscow and St. Petersburg for wooded lawns and rural vistas. But since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia’s mushrooming business class has poured millions […]

Dire Strait

Russian poachers are killing 200 to 400 polar bears each year in the Bering Strait region, a trend that threatens to halve the strait’s bear population by 2020, according to new research by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Russia and the U.S. are currently considering ratification of a treaty the two nations signed in […]

South Parks

A plan to privatize a string of national parks in sub-Saharan Africa has garnered support from former South African president Nelson Mandela, the World Bank, and the U.S. State Department, among others. The plan grew out of a 1998 meeting between Mandela and Paul van Vlissingen, a Dutch tycoon and conservationist, at which Mandela expressed […]

Grazing a Ruckus

After years of rancorous fighting, a group of Idaho environmentalists and ranchers are close to agreement on a plan that would give federal wilderness protection to more than 400,000 acres in the Owyhee canyon lands of southern Idaho. The deal would also let ranchers trade grazing leases for parcels of public land and assure ranchers […]