Articles by Grist staff

Holy Mackerel!

Commercial fish farming has been touted as a way to take pressure off stocks of wild fish, but in fact it has had the opposite effect, according to a study in today’s issue of the journal Nature. Fish farming, or aquaculture, has raised demand for ocean fish such as mackerel and anchovies that are ground […]

A "Likely" Story

Atrazine, the most commonly used herbicide in the U.S., has been deemed a “likely” carcinogen in a draft EPA report. The chemical kills weeds around corn, citrus fruits, and other crops, but it may also cause uterine, prostate, and breast cancer and disrupt reproductive development after it seeps into drinking water, EPA scientists say. The […]

Governor Moonbeam, Mayor Sunshine

The Oakland, Calif., City Council has approved a plan to buy clean, alternative energy for all its municipal needs, from traffic signals to the lights in City Hall. “It leads us in the direction of reducing global warming, stimulating new industry, and sets the pace for the national government,” said Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown. Santa […]

Keeping Development at Bay

In an agreement being hailed as a national model, the leaders of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., pledged yesterday to curb sprawl in the Chesapeake Bay area. They vowed to reduce by 30 percent the rate of development in the 64,000-square-mile watershed by 2012, and to permanently protect 1.6 million acres and restore 25,000 […]