Articles by Grist staff

Republican Riders in the Saddle Again

Congress’s efforts to pass the massive bills that authorize government spending are being tied up because some Republicans insist on attaching to the bills unrelated amendments called “riders,” many of which aim to undermine environmental protections. Defenders of Wildlife says that Republicans have placed at least 56 anti-environmental riders on 10 appropriations bills, including measures […]

Smokin' Reefers

Tropical waters in the Northern Hemisphere have been heating up at a dramatic rate, about 1 degree Fahrenheit per decade since 1984, contributing to the unprecedented bleaching of coral reefs over the past 10 years, according to an analysis released last week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA scientists had no explanation for […]

Weird Science

In a move that has angered the international community, Japan sent out a fleet of ships into the North Pacific on Saturday with the aim of killing three species of whales — minke, sperm, and Bryde’s. An international moratorium on commercial whaling went into effect in 1986, but Japan has continued to hunt several hundred […]

Beyond a Shadow of a Drought

China is enduring one of the worst droughts in its history, and many experts are worrying that the nation is running out of water for its 1.3 billion people. Some 400 of China’s 668 cities have declared water shortages, which means that taps may work only a few hours a day, if at all. At […]