Articles by Grist staff

USDA Eats Its Words

In a move being hailed by enviros, the U.S. Department of Agriculture this week will announce tough new proposed standards for organic foods. The department had released a previous set of standards in 1997, but went back to the drawing board after receiving more than 275,000 negative public comments about the rules, which would have […]

Sunshine on My Solar Cell Makes Me Happy

Native American Photovoltaics, a new nonprofit, aims to bring solar power to homes on Indian reservations across the U.S. Last year, the group launched a program that offers families in the southwestern portion of the Navajo Reservation in Arizona the chance to lease-to-own a solar generator that can provide enough power to fuel lights, a […]

How Appealing!

In a big victory for the EPA and enviros, a federal appeals court on Friday confirmed the EPA’s authority to make states crack down on power-plant emissions that contribute to dirty air drifting from state to state. Many Northeastern states have long argued that they cannot meet federal air quality standards unless pollution originating in […]

I Spy a Great Big Rainforest

The Brazilian government is launching a five-year high-tech project that will use satellites, surveillance aircraft, and radar systems to keep tabs on activities in the Amazon rainforest, which stretches across some 3.1 million square miles of the country. Officials estimate that 5 million acres of Amazon forest are illegally logged each year, and unlicensed gold […]