Articles by Grist staff

Apollo 18

To meet energy demands without escalating the problem of global warming, humankind must embark on a research effort as grand in scale as the Apollo project to put a man on the moon, say scientists in a study published today in the journal Science. The 18 researchers — coming from government, universities, and even such […]

Bambi Vs. Thumper

The Bush administration’s plan to expand fossil fuel exploration in the West ran into an obstacle Wednesday when a federal judge temporarily blocked the Interior Department from allowing energy prospecting on thousands of acres of public land in Utah. The ruling halted a project by a seismic exploration company to search for oil and gas […]

Cooked Vegetables

Nearly half of the world’s plant species could be facing extinction, say two leading botanists today in the journal Science. That finding contrasts sharply with a commonly cited assessment by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), which concluded that only 13 percent of the world’s plant species were at risk of vanishing. The new report argues […]

Keep the Pedal From the Metal

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is barring off-road enthusiasts from one of their favorite playgrounds in Utah — but this time, it’s to safeguard their own health, not that of the environment. At Manning Canyon, a recreation area near Salt Lake City, the soil is contaminated with arsenic, lead, mercury, and other heavy metals […]