Articles by Grist staff

If We've Said It Once, We've Said It a Thousand Times …

Without action to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, average global temperatures would rise about 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 80 years, causing sea levels to rise and landlocked glaciers to melt, according to new research conducted by the U.K.’s Meteorological Office. Up to 94 million people would be displaced as sea levels rose by […]

Bag It, Tag It, Sell It to the Butcher in the Pet Store

The world’s coral reefs are threatened by consumers seeking tropical fish and coral for home aquariums, scientists said yesterday at a reef protection conference organized by the U.S. Home aquarium owners, mostly Americans, are buying live coral at a rate that has been growing by 12 to 30 percent a year since 1990, according to […]

Hi, Ho, Quicksilver

Debate is brewing over safe levels of exposure to mercury and whether new limits should be imposed on mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants. While most industrial uses of mercury are declining, concentrations of methylmercury, a particularly toxic form of mercury, are increasing in the environment and the food chain. Consumption of fish is the […]

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 […]