Articles by Grist staff

Your Name Is Smud

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s internationally known solar power program is in shambles, having exceeded its budget and lost its long-term leader. The utility district had planned to spend $3.2 million in 2002 to help homeowners, businesses, government offices, and nonprofits install photovoltaic panels, to reach a goal of producing an additional 2 megawatts of […]

Hurricane Hugo

If Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has his way, some developing nations will create an OPEC-like cartel to protect plants and animals from exploitation by the industrialized world. Speaking earlier this week at the close of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Chavez said, “If these [developed] countries carry off a medical formula from some jungle […]

Nothing Doing

After 10 days of bargaining, debate, protests, speeches, presentations, negotiations, renegotiations, and etcetera, the World Summit on Sustainable Development is over. What remains behind is a 70-page non-binding plan and a burning question: Was anything achieved? Well — the plan does include a relatively strong stance on improving sanitation and protecting fish stocks, leading one […]

Can’t See the Trees for the Forest Service

Two House Democrats have accused the U.S. Forest Service of cooking its books in order to blame environmentalists for the fires that raged across much of the West this summer. Reps. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) spoke out yesterday against a recent USFS report in which the agency claimed that environmental appeals delayed […]