Articles by Grist staff

I Know What You Did Last, Summers

Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said yesterday that a major lesson from last month’s failed World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle is that any new trade discussions must address the issues of environmental regulation, worker rights, and child labor. Summers made his remarks to corporate executives in Bombay, the business capital of India, an audience that […]

Beached Wail

Venezuela has banned fishing and swimming along hundreds of miles of Caribbean coastline after finding dangerous levels of sewage pollution caused by massive flooding last month. Powerful floods and mudslides that hit the nation’s northern coast in mid-December killed up to 50,000 people and destroyed many sewage pipes and water treatment plants. The ban affects […]

Jaws Dropping

A coalition of enviro groups has filed suit against the U.S. government to force protection of the endangered manatee, a marine mammal that spends much of the year in Florida’s warm coastal waters. The enviros say that U.S. and Florida officials have failed to enforce restrictions on boating, coastal development, and habitat destruction, thereby leading […]

Smog Tied

Record levels of air pollution in Milan, Italy, pushed officials Sunday to impose a one-day ban on cars and motorbikes in the city center, for the first time in 25 years. Meanwhile, Britain’s air quality took a dive in 1999, according to Friends of the Earth. Pollution levels exceeded health standards on average one day […]