Articles by Grist staff

Crystal Mess

Here’s a troubling source of toxins that hasn’t made it onto the average environmentalist’s radar screen: methamphetamine labs. For every pound of the illegal stimulant produced, six pounds of toxic waste are left behind. Not surprisingly, there’s no environmental oversight for meth labs, so the toxic waste is often dumped into rivers or directly onto […]

Green Gobblin'

The environment has been a defining issue in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race, where Democrat James McGreevey and Republican Bret Schundler are vying to lead the nation’s most densely populated state. McGreevey, who says eight years of Republican control by former governor and current U.S. EPA head Christie Whitman were bad for the state’s environment, is […]

Bad News, Bears

The controversial proposal now before the Senate to drill for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could violate an international agreement signed by the U.S. in 1973 to protect polar bears and their habitats. An internal report obtained by the Washington Post shows that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded in 1995 that […]

Appease in a Pod

In a compromise meant to appease both industry and environmentalists, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark today banned all commercial uses of genetically modified organisms for the next two years, while allowing GMO field tests to begin. Test plantings of such crops as peas and petunias could be start within the next year; the government […]