Articles by Grist staff

Howling With Joy

Leaving intact protections for red wolves in North Carolina, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday declined to hear a case in which two farmers in the state challenged the federal government’s right to impose endangered species rules on private landowners. The farmers and two counties sued the feds to nullify rules that provided for the reintroduction […]

To Summit All Up

South African officials announced yesterday that the next Earth Summit, to be held in Johannesburg in 2002, will focus on worldwide access to drinking water and safeguarding children. The summit — officially called the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development — has the modest agenda of reviewing progress since the 1992 Rio summit, looking at […]

This Is the Dawning of the Age of Aquariums

It would be illegal to dump a common aquarium algae in any body of water in California under a bill before the state legislature. Caulerpa taxifolia, once given away free as a decorative addition to aquariums, is now banned by the Noxious Weed Act in the U.S. — but it can still be purchased illegally […]

Tropic of Cancer

Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in Florida’s Panhandle are known for their unspoiled beaches and the Gulf of Mexico’s pretty waters — less known is that the area has some of the highest concentrations of toxic substances in the U.S. A three-month investigation by the Pensacola News Journal found that death rates from all forms […]