Articles by Grist staff

Wonder Twin Powers: Deregulate

As electric utility deregulation gets rolling in California and Pennsylvania, enviros are anxiously watching to see whether consumers, who now have a choice about their power providers, will opt to pay a little more for renewable energy. In California, about 1 percent, or some 116,000 homes, have gone to green power since the market opened […]

Soil and Trouble

Nations in Sub-Saharan Africa may be unable to feed 60 percent of a projected population of 1 billion by 2025 unless dramatic steps are taken to improve the fertility and quality of soil in the region, according to a report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization released on Saturday, World Food Day. The capacity […]

Climate Out of Control

Large reductions in carbon-dioxide emissions could have a modest effect in slowing climate change, delaying some of the effects by 50 to 100 years, according to a report by scientists at the Hadley Centre for Climate Protection and Research, part of the U.K. Meteorological Office. However, to achieve this delay, emissions cuts of 50 to […]

Bawl Bering

Starvation seems the most likely cause of death for nearly 1,000 gray whales that died last summer along the west coast of North America. A Canadian researcher believes the whales were victims of a drop in food production in the Bering Sea. Scientists don’t know whether the trend is due to global warming or to […]