Articles by Grist staff

Quit Your Blubbering

Norwegian whalers resumed their controversial hunt last month, despite a collapsed market for whale blubber. The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986, but Norway began hunting again in 1993, flouting the ban. Norwegians have stockpiled some 800 tons of blubber in warehouses — “blubber mountain,” they call it — in hopes that the […]

Once More Into the Reach

Vice President Al Gore toured the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River in Washington state today and announced that President Clinton this morning declared the surrounding area a national monument, a designation that needs no congressional approval. The 200,000 acres to be protected include the only remaining free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River, 51 miles […]

Maples Leaving

U.S. cities will likely be hotter and more humid, sugar maples in the Northeast may disappear, and barrier islands off the Carolinas may be flooded under rising sea levels as climate change takes its toll on the U.S. over the coming century. These predictions are part of a federal government report on the likely effects […]

The Gray and the Blues

Some environmentalists say California Gov. Gray Davis (D) has succumbed to campaign contributions from the timber industry and is failing to push for more protections for the state’s forestland. Clear-cutting has exploded in the state in recent years, largely because of one company, Sierra Pacific Industries, which owns 1.5 million forest acres in the state, […]