Articles by Grist staff

The Mod Squad

Delegates from more than 130 nations on Saturday adopted the first global treaty regulating trade in genetically modified products, the first time that environmental concerns and trade rules have been reconciled in an international agreement. The treaty allows countries to bar imports of genetically modified seeds, crops, and animals, even if scientific studies have not […]

Duh.

The U.S. government is finally conceding that workers who helped make nuclear weapons at 14 plants have higher-than-normal rates of a wide range of cancers, most of them fatal. The conclusion comes from a draft report prepared at the request of Pres. Clinton. Since the Manhattan Project began 57 years ago, the government has until […]

Tickle Me, Elko

Hundreds of disgruntled Nevadans paraded through Elko, Nev., with 10,000 shovels on Saturday to protest a federal environmental policy that is keeping the U.S. Forest Service from rebuilding a washed-out road. The residents want to reconstruct a dirt road in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, but the USFS says the project would lead to erosion that […]

Ready, Set, Kyoto

While most industrial nations and developing countries are pumping out more greenhouse gases than ever, Japan’s carbon dioxide emissions dropped by 3.8 percent in 1998. About 60 percent of the decline is attributed to the country’s economic slump, but some resulted from efficiency improvements, according to Japan’s Environment Agency. The nation intends to continue reducing […]