Articles by Grist staff

The Lung and Short of It

More than 140 million Americans live in areas that flunk air-quality tests for ozone pollution, according to a report by the American Lung Association. The number rose 9 million since the group issued a similar report last year, in part due to hot summer conditions that could become par-for-the-course because of global warming. The group […]

That's Why He's Called the "Vice" President

Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday rejected the idea that "we could simply conserve or ration our way out" of what he described as an energy crisis. Instead, he said the U.S. must increase its supply of fossil fuels, open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, and build one new power plant a week […]

Runoff Sentences

Runoff from fertilizers and other nutrient-rich chemicals is posing a major threat to Canada’s water bodies, according to a government report conducted over five years. The report, completed in January 2001 and obtained under public access rules by a private citizen, says farming and municipal sewage systems are the biggest source of the nitrogen- and […]

Daschle, Dancer

U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (S.D.) last week said he would support dramatic changes in the Kyoto treaty on climate change, including a move away from mandatory to voluntary targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Faced with immediate criticism by environmental groups, however, Daschle on Saturday backed away from his earlier statement and issued […]