Articles by Grist staff

Cut Down in Their Prime

Using helicopters, forged permits, and police scanners, forestry thieves are illegally cutting tens of millions of dollars worth of old-growth trees a year in British Columbia. A big part of the problem is that some mills are knowingly supporting a black market in wood. One forestry official described the environmental degradation caused by the increasing […]

The Bureau of Land Management is due for a shake-up

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) controls more land than any other agency in the world. Its 265 million acres in the American West cover an area greater in size than the entire National Forest system plus the state of Wyoming. You too should care about the […]

Vehicular Homicide

Air pollution accounts for about 6 percent of deaths each year in Austria, France, and Switzerland, according to a study published today in the Lancet medical journal. The study found that half of those deaths can be attributed to pollution from vehicles. The researchers also calculated that the health cost of vehicle pollution in the […]

Beet Nix

A study published today in Science found that the planting of genetically engineered sugar beets could cause a dramatic decline in England’s already waning skylark population. The British researchers argue that sugar beets engineered to be resistant to herbicides will allow farmers to use more powerful sprays to wipe out weeds, possibly leading to a […]