Articles by Grist staff

Hamster Dance

Eight environmental organizations sued the U.S. Forest Service yesterday for failing to increase the fees paid by ranchers to graze livestock on public lands. The groups say that the dramatically below-market rates charged by the USFS cost taxpayers money and lead to damage from overgrazing on 95 million acres of federally owned land. On average, […]

First in Fright

A bankrupt paper mill in North Carolina is refusing to take responsibility for millions of gallons of wastewater, polluted landfills, and toxic chemicals it produced, leaving state environmental regulators stymied and alarmed. “We’ve just never dealt with anybody who said, ‘We’re going to walk out the door and leave it,'” said Forrest Westall, the regional […]

The Rootworm of All Evil

In a major win for the biotech industry, the U.S. government yesterday gave Monsanto the green light to sell corn that has been genetically modified to resist rootworm disease, the most significant threat to the crop. The effort to combat rootworm has been the single biggest reason farmers use pesticides, so the decision will be […]

Withering Heights

The Bush administration’s proposal for addressing climate change was subjected to withering criticism by 17 experts in a report released yesterday. The experts, who were convened by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences at the request of the administration, said that the proposal lacked “a guiding vision, executable goals, [and] clear timetables” and that its […]