Articles by Grist staff

Summertime, and the Conservin' Was Easy

Summer has passed and dire predictions of blackouts in California as a result of the state’s much-publicized energy crisis have gone unfulfilled. Instead, California now has more power than it can use and leads the country in energy conservation. A whopping third of the state’s ratepayers have taken part in a new state initiative that […]

Hot Rods

As U.S. officials scramble to improve security at the nation’s 103 operating nuclear power plants, a new safety concern has emerged: stockpiles of spent nuclear fuel rods. Many authorities believe that an attack on the fuel — which has been removed from reactors but is still radioactive — could be even more disastrous than an […]

Excuse Me, Can You Tell Me Where the Life Is?

“A New Map of Life on Earth,” a new project of the World Wildlife Fund, charts the natural world in unprecedented detail and may help environmentalists figure out where to best direct their efforts. The project, which took eight years and the labor of more than 1,000 people to complete, divides the Earth into 867 […]

Thought for Food

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has approved a precedent-setting, legally binding framework for protecting the genetic diversity of the world’s crops. The deal reached over the weekend marks the culmination of years of difficult negotiations between poor countries and environmentalists on the one hand, and developed nations and multinational corporations on the other. Under […]