Articles by Grist staff

Enviros Say Power Company Buys Off Locals in Uganda

AES Corp. has struck a $500 million dollar deal with Uganda to build a dam near Bujagali Falls on the Nile River, but construction on the site is still on hold. The Virginia-based company said it didn’t expect to encounter so much opposition from locals, whose lives and customs revolve around the river. AES has […]

Nuclear Plants Might Not Withstand Terrorist Attacks

Nuclear power plants are vulnerable to terrorists, and attacks on them could cause much more damage than Tuesday’s disasters, says Tom Clements, head of the Nuclear Control Institute in Washington, D.C. He says the reactors’ containment systems were not built to withstand attacks from the air. But that’s not all. Clements says, “It’s quite apparent […]

Dust, Asbestos From Trade Center Put Some at Risk

The enormous cloud of smoke and grit that spread from the collapsing World Trade Center towers on Tuesday could lead to attacks of asthma, emphysema, and other lung diseases, even a day or two after people were exposed, doctors said yesterday. Aside from the smoke, U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman said the biggest environmental […]

Solar Helps Bridge Digital Divide in Developed World

Solar energy has become the energy of choice in some of the world’s rural markets, helping to bridge the digital divide in developing countries. Daniel Kammen of the University of California at Berkeley said 2 billion people across the world don’t have access to electricity and 1 billion of them could afford to pay for […]