Articles by Grist staff

The Importance of Being Ernesto

In an effort to protect the winter nesting grounds of monarch butterflies, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo expanded a forest reserve in central Mexico yesterday. Local residents and giant logging companies have been cutting down lots of trees in the area, and a recent study indicated that 44 percent of the monarchs’ winter habitat had been […]

Dombeck Rules!

U.S. Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck officially instituted new rules yesterday requiring that ecosystem health be the No. 1 priority in managing national forests. The agency previously required its managers to weigh ecosystem health equally with other concerns such as logging and public access. The new rule prohibits cutting timber at unsustainable rates and eliminates […]

Chair-ish the Thought

Much to the distress of environmentalists, Rep. Jim Hansen (R-Utah) is poised to become the next chair of the House Resources Committee, which deals with all bills related to wilderness, public lands, endangered species, and mineral resource extraction. The current chair, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), also widely disliked by enviros, will step down from the […]

I Do Know Why, 'Cause There's Carbon in the Sky, Stormy Weather

Representatives of some 180 countries will gather in the Hague, Netherlands, next Monday to begin two weeks of talks to nail down the details of how to implement the Kyoto climate change treaty. French Environment Minister Dominique Voynet said this week that the European Union is united behind the idea that countries should meet most […]