Articles by Grist staff

WTO Pours It On

The World Trade Organization responded to its environmental critics yesterday by releasing a report blaming poverty, not trade, for environmental degradation. The report didn’t address enviros’ criticisms that WTO rules clash with environmental goals and that decisions by its dispute settlement body have undermined environmental protection. The report instead notes that as countries grow richer, […]

Smoked Salmon

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt will seek to have wild Atlantic salmon protected as endangered, after the release last week of a government report that found that the fish is near extinction. Despite a two-year effort by Maine to save salmon without federal intervention, the wild species continues to face threats from aquaculture, erosion, pollution, fishing, […]

Take That, Hosers

Tired of pollution drifting up from the south, officials in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, are considering joining a lawsuit that New York state plans to file next month against coal-fired power plants in the Midwest. Toronto health and environment officials are to meet today with the office of New York’s attorney general, which last month […]

One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Sick Rats

The debate over genetically modified foods is rising to a new pitch following a decision by the British medical journal the Lancet to publish a controversial study suggesting that gene-altered potatoes may cause health problems in rats. In an unusual move, the editor of the journal has written a commentary revealing that a minority of […]