Articles by Grist staff

Turning Over a New Leaf

Worried about deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and global climate change? Relax. A scientist at Columbia University has come up with a solution: synthetic trees. Klaus Lackner says his fake tree would suck carbon dioxide from the air, as plants do during photosynthesis, thereby helping cleanse the atmosphere of the leading greenhouse gas. According to Lackner, […]

The Hunger! The Hunger!

The world’s population is growing, yet world hunger is on the wane — a testament to the success of agriculture. But with the global population expected to increase 50 percent by mid-century, many doubt whether our current food system can continue to provide. The problem isn’t the ability to keep producing more food; the problem […]

Stone Cold Killer

The massive storm that dumped feet of snow on the Northeast over the weekend was lovely to look at, fun to play in — and bad news for some river species. In an effort to unbury themselves, many cities in the region dumped plowed snow directly into nearby rivers, a practice some scientists warn could […]

Gorging Themselves

China’s controversial Three Gorges dam looks like small potatoes next to the country’s latest proposed water project, a gargantuan network of dams and canals designed to divert water from the south to thirsty northern cities such as Beijing. The project would cost $60 billion over 50 years (twice as much as Three Gorges) and would […]