Articles by Grist staff

Can't See the Forest for the Treaties

Despite fiery opposition from Canada, U.N. negotiators on Saturday created a new international body, the U.N. Forum on Forests, to implement existing international agreements and conventions on forest protection. Canada argues that existing conventions are not working and wants the U.N. to begin negotiations on a new, comprehensive treaty on forest protection. Enviros oppose launching […]

Impure As the Driven Snow

Snowmobiling is coming under increasing fire in the western U.S., not just from enviros but also from officials at a number of national forests and parks. Snowmobiles have been banned in recent years from some U.S. Forest Service land in Montana and northern Idaho, and they may soon be limited in Yellowstone National Park, the […]

Occidental Deaths?

Riot police clashed with members of Colombia’s indigenous U’wa tribe Friday, as the U’wa protested plans by Occidental Petroleum to drill for oil on traditional U’wa lands in northeastern Colombia. As many as five children may have fallen into a fast-flowing river and drowned in the aftermath of the clash, according to unconfirmed reports. About […]

Flipper Flop

Three Asian species of dolphins may go extinct by 2020 if governments fail to cut pollution and destruction of the species’ habitats, according to scientists at the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation in Hong Kong. The first dolphin species to go will likely be China’s baiji dolphin; there are only about 30 left in the Yangtze […]