Articles by Grist staff

Ted's Bill: Bogus

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens (R) is stirring up trouble again with a rider attached to an appropriations bill that would exempt Alaska salmon fishing from the Endangered Species Act. The Clinton administration has threatened to veto the bill over the rider, a move that could jeopardize not only the Columbia River chinook stocks that migrate […]

Schroeder Plays a New Song

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder opened the fifth U.N. World Climate Conference yesterday in Bonn, Germany, with an unexpected call to developed nations to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change by 2002. Thus far, only 14 countries, most of them developing, small island nations already threatened by rising sea levels, have ratified the treaty, which […]

Willy Wonks and the Toxic Factories

Orca whales in the waters around Washington state and British Columbia are severely contaminated with PCBs, which can weaken the animals’ immune systems and hamper reproduction, according to a comprehensive, new study by Canadian and American scientists. Researchers took samples from 47 killer whales and found that they are 400 to 500 times more contaminated […]

Dear John

Rhode Island Sen. John Chafee, a moderate Republican who worked to fashion bipartisan solutions to environmental problems, died unexpectedly of heart failure last night, at the age of 77. Chafee, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, played a significant role in the passage of the 1988 law against ocean dumping, the 1989 […]