Articles by Grist staff

The Prisoner's Dilemma

Rodolfo Montiel Flores, a poor Mexican farmer and environmental activist who was arrested in May 1999 on what enviro and human rights groups say are trumped up charges, was sentenced yesterday to nearly seven years in prison. A district judge in the Mexican state of Guerrero found Montiel guilty of drugs and weapons crimes, though […]

Pumices, Pumices

After a decade-long struggle, 13 Native American tribes and the Sierra Club have finally succeeded in closing down a strip mine in Arizona that supplied much of the pumice used around the world to make stonewashed denim. Federal officials and the mining company signed an agreement yesterday to shut down the mining operation within six […]

Ice Capades

Global warming was top-of-the-hour news last week because of a report in the New York Times that open water had been spotted at the North Pole for the first time in perhaps 50 million years. Turns out the Times overstated the development; in a correction today and a follow-up article, the newspaper reports that some […]

Burning Questions

As the U.S. endures its worst forest fire season in 50 years, some enviros and scientists are wondering whether climate change might be one of the catalysts. “It’s very difficult to say with a great degree of certainty, but what you can say is that this summer’s events are very typical of the kinds of […]