Articles by Grist staff

Park and Chide

Many national parks and government-protected wilderness areas in developing nations are threatened or in bad condition, according to a new report conducted by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). Many of the parks are at risk from logging, hunting, mining, pollution, agriculture, human settlement, tourism, and war. The World Bank and the World Wildlife Fund, which […]

Me Thinks Thou Dost Protest — But Not Too Much

Protestors against the World Trade Organization in Seattle continue to press their views that the trade body tramples on the environment, labor standards, and human rights, while police in full riot gear continue to trample on the rights of demonstrators and some bystanders. Pres. Clinton tried to mollify WTO opponents in two speeches yesterday by […]

Hey, Caterpillars, Make Tracks

Even as the EU started giving ground on the issue of genetically modified foods at the WTO talks, a new study is showing that a widely used variety of GM corn leaves traces of toxin in the soil that can remain there indefinitely. The corn has been modified to produce a natural insecticide, the bacterium […]

Dumbo and Dumber

Poachers in Zimbabwe have killed as many as 400 elephants in the past year, according to park officials and internal park documents. Gangs have used AK-47 automatic rifles to kill the animals, then axes or chain saws to hack off the elephants’ ivory tusks, leaving hundreds of carcasses in the remote Zambezi valley near the […]