Articles by Grist staff

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

About 1,000 demonstrators, some dressed as ears of corn and others as tomatoes, held a protest yesterday in San Diego on the opening day of a biotechnology trade show. Shannon Service of Boulder, Colo., who was in a monarch butterfly costume, said, “The biotech industry is conducting a real-time experiment with our biosphere. They don’t […]

Unhealthy Glow

Thousands more people than expected face health threats from plutonium and other highly radioactive isotopes that contaminated huge amounts of uranium recycled by the U.S. nuclear weapons program over the last 50 years. USA Today reports that federal data show that the recycling program yielded 250,000 tons of tainted uranium, about double the estimate of […]

Sonic the Gas-hog

Boeing last week admitted that its new high-speed plane, the Sonic Cruiser, would burn more fuel than other airliners, but appeared to dismiss concerns about the plane’s environmental impact. “There is plenty of fossil fuel still around,” said Harry Stonecipher, the company’s vice chair. He tried to poke fun at Boeing rival Airbus for jumping […]

Aye, Claudia

A federal judge effectively halted all oil and gas drilling off the California coast on Friday, ruling that state officials must first decide whether drilling would harm the environment. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland said the state has the right to approve any plans by the federal government to open waters off California […]