Articles by Grist staff
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Yes, Trash Can!
At least four commercial ventures are gearing up to make money from biomass power, which uses organic refuse (corn stalks, rice straw, even household food scraps) to produce alcohol-based substitutes for gasoline. Only some 3 percent of the nation’s energy is currently derived from biomass, nearly all of it from burning wood or making ethanol […]
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Hold On, There
Enviros are becoming increasingly concerned about the development of “inholdings,” or private land within national parks and national forests. There are about 50 million acres of such land, only a fraction of the total land within park and forest boundaries, and in the past most landowners have kept their areas in a natural state or […]
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Take Two Rhinos and Call Me in the Morning
The World Wildlife Fund is campaigning to transform traditional Chinese medicine, working to promote new green standards that would halt the use of endangered species. Although trade in tiger bones, rhinoceros horns, and bear bile is officially banned, the items are still highly sought after as ingredients in traditional treatments. Chinese medicine, which is quickly […]
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The Hills Are Dead With the Sound of Mining
On Saturday, the Clinton administration backed off its support for a legislative rider that would permit the dumping of mining waste into streams in West Virginia. Last week, the administration angered enviros by siding with West Virginia Democrats who are pushing to protect the coal industry’s use of a strip-mining technique known as “mountaintop removal,” […]