Articles by Grist staff

Sand Witches

Growing demand for concrete and asphalt in southern California in the last three years is scarring Baja California’s once-sandy riverbeds. As much as 2 million tons of sand are being excavated, both legally and illegally, each year from Baja and then sent north to help with construction projects in the U.S. Eroding riverbanks, flooding, and […]

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 […]