Articles by Grist staff

Billions and Billions Swerved

It’s been 13 years since the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound, and eight years since a jury awarded $5 billion in punitive damages against the company — and three days since a federal judge began hearing arguments that the award was inappropriate. After the 1994 case, […]

Wet Behind the Ears

In what it is calling a remedy to the excesses of the Clinton years, the Bush administration is paving the way for Western states to gain control over huge volumes of water previously claimed by the federal government. One prominent example of this new policy involves the Black Canyon National Park in Colorado; in 1978, […]

Invasion of the Habitat Snatchers

Earlier this year, the northern snakehead — that flesh-eating, land-crawling invasive fish — colonized a Maryland pond and an entire country’s imagination. But the snakehead is small fry compared to the larger problem of nonnative species in the U.S.: According to a report released yesterday by the National Wildlife Refuge Association, 8 million of the […]

Send in the Marine Reserves

Australia has unveiled plans to create the world’s largest marine reserve in 16 million acres of the Indian Ocean, 2,500 miles off the nation’s southwest coast. The Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve will be twice the size of Switzerland and will protect one of the world’s most pristine marine environments from exploitation, including […]