Articles by Grist staff

Frog Days of Summer

For the first time, scientists have found evidence linking agricultural runoff to the rise in grotesque hind-limb deformities in frogs. In the past, the deformities were associated with a common parasite, the burrowing trematode worm, which seemed to affect the development of tadpoles. Now, writing in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National […]

Bread and Butterfly

Like a lot of Americans, millions of monarch butterflies spend their winters in Mexico. Trouble is, the Mexican government has been unable to protect the monarch’s forest habitat from illegal logging. Reasoning that illegal logging stems from necessity — the 200,000-odd largely impoverished people who live in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve clear the lands […]

Lack of Response Ability

The U.S. EPA is “not fully prepared” to handle a large-scale nuclear, biological, chemical, or radiological attack on the country, according to an internal assessment by the agency. The report was commissioned by EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman in response to the attacks of Sept. 11 and strongly suggests that if those attacks had involved […]

Plant Nein

A controversial decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service not to set aside protected areas known as “critical habitat” for eight imperiled plant species has been challenged by a federal judge in California. The ruling by Judge Irma Gonzalez was greeted triumphantly by environmentalists, although it merely orders the USFWS to reconsidered its position […]