Articles by Grist staff
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A Cigar Is a Cigar, But a Rainforest Is a Smoke
Smoke from the burning of forests decreases rainfall, according to new research to be published this month in Geophysical Research Letters. Scientists studied the area of Kalimantan, Indonesia, last year when the southeastern portion of the island was engulfed in smoke and the northwestern portion was relatively smoke-free, and found that precipitation was much lower […]
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O, Say, Can You See?
Four utilities that own a massive coal-fired power plant in Nevada that has been accused of polluting the Grand Canyon and blocking its views have agreed to spend $300 million to install scrubbers to reduce sulfur-dioxide pollution. The agreement, expected to be announced today, comes as a settlement in a lawsuit brought by enviro groups […]
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Jeremiah Was a Sick Frog, Was a Deformed Friend of Mine
Pesticides used in agriculture have been linked to some frog deformities in Minnesota, according to two new studies published in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. A combination of chemicals in Minnesota ponds appears to be causing malformations of frogs’ limbs, eyes, mouths, and other parts. Doug Fort, a coauthor of one of the studies, […]
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A review of 'God's Last Offer' by Ed Ayres
In 1998, S. Sailam, a farmer living with his pregnant wife and two children in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, found that the pesticide he was spraying on his cotton crop had ceased to do its job. In desperation, he killed himself by squirting the pesticide down his throat. More than 100 of his fellow farmers in the region took their lives with this same tragic gesture in January and February of last year. They had been pressed by the Indian government to abandon their tradition of diversified agriculture in favor of high-tech operations growing monoculture cotton for export, and they needed big yields to pay back the loans that financed their switch. When the farmers' crops were decimated by caterpillars, their lives were destroyed as well.
