Articles by Grist staff

Aaaay, It's the Fronds!

A common fern can thrive on big amounts of arsenic and could possibly be put to use soaking up arsenic from contaminated land and water, according to a study published today in the journal Nature. The fern, a nonnative plant that grows in the Southeastern U.S. and California, is the first known plant to do […]

Fund-amentals

Enviros are taking on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to enforce rules that require companies to disclose what it could cost them to make sure they don’t mess up the environment. Calvert Funds, a socially responsible investment firm, and the nonprofit World Resources Institute say that investors aren’t being given enough information […]

McChicken Sandwiched

Stung by a backlash from some farmers and consumers, Monsanto has been saying recently that it pursued the wrong course in trying to win market approval of genetically engineered foods without addressing concerns that the foods might pose risks to human health and the environment. Listen in on Monsanto CEO Hendrik Verfaille: "We tried to […]

O-oh, He's a Little Runway

The Bush administration wants to speed construction of more runways at major airports in the U.S. by streamlining reviews of their environmental impacts. The Federal Aviation Administration has done an about-face and now argues that more runways offer a quicker solution to airport gridlock than updating air-traffic-control computers. But the current process of obtaining federal […]