Articles by Grist staff

Just Deserts

A controversial plan to transform a tract of the Mojave Desert into a giant water-storage facility was killed yesterday by California’s Metropolitan Water District. First presented in 1997 by Keith Brackpool, an advisor and leading financial backer to Gov. Gray Davis (D), the $150 million project would have entailed the construction of a 35-mile pipeline […]

Nuke of Earl

The nuclear industry was “bubbling with new hopes and plans” during a recent conference-cum-pep-rally in Lille, France, according to Pascal Colombani, chair of the E.U’s Atomic Energy Commission. Heartened by Finland’s recent decision to build western Europe’s first nuclear power plant in more than a decade, the nuclear industry is trying to position itself as […]

Us Against DEM

A coalition of environmental and health advocacy groups in Alabama wants to reform the state’s Department of Environmental Management — starting with its name. Saying the agency is too concerned with management and insufficiently concerned with protection, the coalition called yesterday for a new “Department of Environmental Protection” characterized by a different leadership structure, stricter […]

Carb(on) Loading

Higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could increase production of crops but reduce their nutritional value, according to scientists at Ohio State University. Peter Curtis, a professor of evolution, ecology, and biology, worked with researchers to analyze the effects of climate change on plant reproduction and collated data from 159 studies conducted over […]