Articles by Grist staff

Congress and Obama team signal that they will be ready for Copenhagen

In a letter from U.S. groups making the rounds here in Poznan, delegates are being urged to make the decisions needed in Poznan to keep us on schedule for making a final deal in Copenhagen next year, as promised in the historic consensus reached last December in Bali. While the December 2009 meeting in Copenhagen […]

Spike in public transit ridership highest in 25 years

Public transit ridership in the United States continued its steady rise in the third quarter of 2008, jumping 6.5 percent overall compared to the same quarter last year — the largest quarterly rise in some 25 years. Americans took 2.8 billion trips on public transit from July through September, with ridership rising nationwide on buses, […]

Economics of recycling getting much worse

The world economic slowdown has hit recyclers hard as prices for everything from metals to plastics to paper have fallen dramatically in the last few months. While the downturn hasn’t yet completely shut down many municipal recycling programs in the United States, in some areas the precipitous price drop has led recyclers to stop collecting […]

Scientists using consumers’ computing power to develop new solar cell

Researchers at IBM and Harvard University launched a project recently that aims to use a network of consumers’ home computers to run calculations that could lead to new, more efficient solar panels. “It’s a way for people that have computers to do some good for the world,” said Joe Jasinski of IBM.