Articles by Grist staff

Dammed If You Do, Damned If You Don't

Nearly 500 dams in the U.S. have been taken down over the past 15 years, opening up fish runs and flushing out rivers. Campaigns to remove large-scale dams in the West garner most of the media attention, but Steve Higgs of American Rivers says more progress is being made knocking down smaller dams in the […]

Crack Pipe Epidemic

Betcha never knew that the U.S.’s system of water and sewage pipes and treatment plants is decaying and little money has been set aside to repair it. A-ha! Well, listen up. A report by the U.S. EPA concludes that the country will face a $23 billion shortfall each year for infrastructure needs by 2020. Ken […]

What Nerve!

Environmental groups and a commercial fishers group in the Northwest sued the U.S. EPA yesterday to protect salmon from small amounts of pesticides often found in rivers. The plaintiffs want the agency to review how pesticides might be harming the fish and to place tougher restrictions on pesticide use until the review is complete. Studies […]

Some Assembly Required

Causing anti-globalization activists to cry foul, the World Trade Organization decided yesterday that it will hold its first top-level meetings since the infamous 1999 Battle in Seattle in Qatar, a Persian Gulf nation with a questionable human rights record and little history of public protest. In the past, the U.S. State Department has said that […]