Articles by Grist staff

Rats.

Officials are conducting tests off the northern coast of New Zealand’s South Island — one of the world’s most well-known feeding grounds for whales, dolphins, and seals — after a trailer filled with 18 tons of deadly rat poison crashed and fell into the sea. Dead fish and eels have already washed up along the […]

They've Got Balls

Vice President Dick Cheney was greeted by two standing ovations from the crowd yesterday at the annual conference sponsored by the Nuclear Energy Institute. Cheney is the architect of the Bush administration energy plan, which calls for increased use of nuclear power in the U.S. In celebration of the change of heart in Washington, D.C., […]

Pop the Corks

Delegates from 127 countries yesterday formally moved to adopt a treaty to ban or reduce the use of 12 persistent organic pollutants (POPs), chemicals such as PCBs and pesticides that have been linked to cancer, birth defects, and genetic abnormalities in humans and wildlife. The treaty will be signed by delegates in Stockholm, Sweden, today, […]

With a Knick-knack, Sarawack

Elsewhere in Malaysia, the $5 billion, 2,400-megawatt Bakun Dam project is slated to flood a rainforest area the size of Singapore. The government says the dam is needed to help spur economic development and bring new industry to the 2 million residents of Sarawak, the country’s largest state. But opponents say the dam will displace […]