Articles by Grist staff

You Dirty Rats!

Using boats and helicopters to drop about 120 tons of poisoned bait, New Zealand has launched the biggest rat eradication program in history. By ridding the remote Campbell Island south of New Zealand of 200,000 rats, officials hope to clear the way for the return of the flightless teal duck and the restoration of a […]

Rising Stun

The International Whaling Commission yesterday delayed for a year the touchy subject of whether to lift a ban on commercial whaling. A motion by pro-whaling countries asking the IWC to allow controlled hunts was withdrawn before an official vote. The pro-whaling faction is led by Japan, which ran into a P.R. nightmare last week when […]

Jesus, Christie!

U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman yesterday proposed replacing five of the government’s toughest air-pollution programs with a single approach favored by the electricity industry. Rules to limit mercury emissions, reduce emissions from Midwestern power plants, and restore visibility in national parks would be scrapped. As a replacement, Whitman sketched a plan to reduce nitrogen […]

Hey Good Lookin', What Ya Got Cookin'?

Nearly all residents in Villaseca, Chile, cook with solar power –pretty nifty in a country where firewood is a big source of energy, contributing to a steep loss in old-growth forests each year. Villaseca in sunny northern Chile has only 300 residents, but proponents of the solar technology hope the gizmos will spread across the […]