Articles by Grist staff

The Greatest Cape

The Global Environment Facility has awarded $1 million to help preserve a rugged wilderness area in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. In addition to being the largest protected area in the Eastern Cape and the source of 85 percent of drinking water for nearby Port Elizabeth, South Africa, the Baviaanskloof wilderness preserve contains more than 1,100 […]

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 […]