Articles by Grist staff

Krilling Me Softly

The hole in the ozone layer may be responsible for a dramatic decline in krill numbers in the Antarctic Ocean, according to U.S. and German scientists working on a Japanese Fisheries Agency ship. The krill population off the Antarctic Peninsula south of Tierra del Fuego has dropped by about 75 percent since the mid-1980s, according […]

Consuming Desires

Consumer demand for organic food is soaring in Europe, leading to a jump in the number of organic farms from 6,300 in 1985 to more than 100,000 in 1998, according to a report prepared last year for the European Union by Nicholas Lampkin of the University of Wales in Aberystwyth. Lampkin predicted that 10 percent […]

Tanks for Nothing

Up to 170,000 sea birds have been killed by a large oil spill off France’s western coast, which began on Dec. 12 when a tanker hired by the oil giant TotalFina spilt in two during stormy weather and sank in the waves, pouring 3 million gallons of oil into the Atlantic. Some of the oil […]

Alexander and the Wonderful, Beautiful, No Bad, Very Good Day

Alexander Nikitin, a retired Russian naval captain, was acquitted last week of treason and espionage charges, which were brought against him after he disclosed information about nuclear safety hazards aboard Russian submarines. The court decision, which came nearly four years after Nikitin was arrested and after a second trial, was hailed as a big victory […]