Articles by Grist staff

Seven post-financial-crisis opportunities for healthier economies

Are there silver linings to the dark cloud of the financial crisis? It is a truism in our politics that only a crisis produces real change. So, looking on the positive side, what might we hope this crisis will bring forward? Here are seven outcomes worth seeking: 1. For decades, anti-regulation market fundamentalists have argued […]

Navy can use sonar despite risk of whale harm, says Supreme Court

Photo: bbum In a big setback for whales and environmentalists, the U.S. Supreme Court has yanked restrictions on sonar use in Navy training exercises near the California coast. The court, which split 5-4, didn’t quibble with the Navy’s own estimates that sonar can lead to substantial and irreparable harm to whales. However, the majority opinion […]

IEA forecasts boom in renewables through 2030

The influential International Energy Agency has released its annual report on world energy demand, predicting that renewables will make big gains worldwide, increasing their overall market share 5 percent to meet 23 percent of the world’s total energy needs by 2030. However, coal consumption is also predicted to increase, eventually providing some 44 percent of […]

Japan’s emissions hit record levels

Last year, Japan’s greenhouse-gas emissions reached record levels, hitting 1.5 billion tons of CO2 equivalent — an increase of some 2.3 percent. Much of the rise was due to an earthquake shutting down the world’s largest nuclear plant in northwestern Japan, which pushed utilities to rely more on fossil fuels. But critics have also said […]