Articles by Grist staff

Something's Always Happening at the Zhu

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji launched the country’s first five-year environmental plan earlier this week, acknowledging the need to balance economic development with environmental concerns. In a speech to China’s parliament, Zhu drew attention to forest preservation, desertification, and water shortages. About 400 of China’s 668 cities suffer water shortages, and some 700 million of China’s […]

Money Doesn't Grow on Logs, You Know

The feds lost $126 million from logging on national forests in 1998, according to a draft report released yesterday by the U.S. Forest Service. The agency spent $672 million to administer timber sales that generated only $546 million in revenue. The Tongass National Forest in Alaska led the list of money losers: It cost $35.6 […]

Flutter, Bye

Loggers in Mexico may have poisoned 22 million monarch butterflies in an attempt to gain access to protected forestland, says Homero Aridjis, head of the Mexican environmental organization Group of 100. Aridjis said the butterflies, which migrate each winter from Canada to fir forests in the Michoacan state of central Mexico, were found dead on […]

You're Soaking in It

Iowa’s 132 lakes are among the water bodies most polluted with fertilizers in the world, according to a study by Iowa State University. Researcher John Downing took three rounds of samples from each of the lakes last summer, and the results turned up heavy concentrations of nitrates and phosphorus, both common ingredients in farm and […]