Articles by Grist staff

Country Mouse, City Moose

Within five years, more people in the world will live in cities than in rural areas, a shift that will have big implications for the environment, according to a new study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Richard Blackburn, one of the study authors, said policy makers might do well to focus […]

Peaking Ducks?

More than 320 Asian bird species are at risk of extinction because of habitat loss, says the conservation group BirdLife International. Deforestation and wetlands loss have caused the number to take a huge jump from 1981, when only 51 species faced extinction. The groups says that out of 2,700 Asian bird species, 664 are confronting […]

Critical Masses

Criticism of President Bush’s Rose Garden speech on global warming hasn’t been hard to come by. Margot Wallstrom, the European Union’s environment commissioner, said in a statement today that Bush’s speech was “short on action.” Canadian leaders agreed. Climate scientists took issue with the idea that any actions to curb global warming should wait until […]

Research and Destroy

Before departing for Europe yesterday, President Bush gave his first speech devoted to global warming, promising to begin a program to research the problem more thoroughly but giving little indication of policies he would recommend to bring down greenhouse gas emissions. He said the Kyoto treaty on climate change was “fatally flawed in fundamental ways,” […]