Articles by Grist staff

Dust in the Wind

Particulate pollution quadrupled across a quarter of the U.S. last weekend because of a dust storm from Mongolia that picked up industrial pollution in China. Some scientists have claimed for years that pollution can spread from China to the U.S., causing air quality to plummet. Russ Schnell of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said […]

Marsh Mellow

In a defeat for developers, the Bush administration said yesterday it wouldn’t try to weaken a rule approved by former President Clinton to expand protections to tens of thousands of acres of wetlands. The rule requires developers to obtain permits under the Clean Water Act for many basic activities such as digging artificial lakes, constructing […]

Slope a Dope

In what may be one of the largest oil spills ever on Alaska’s North Slope — and a poorly timed one for the oil industry — 92,400 gallons of saltwater and crude oil leaked from a pipeline on the Kuparuk oil field Sunday night. Phillips, which operates the field, said yesterday it had cleaned up […]

Massive Transit

The number of folks riding buses, subways, and trains in the U.S. last year rose to the highest level since 1959, while the number of miles driven on roads remained constant between 1999 and 2000. The American Public Transportation Association said yesterday that riders across the country took 9.4 billion rides on mass transit in […]