Articles by Grist staff

Pollen-hate

Organic farmers are increasingly worried and angry about the possibility that their crops will be contaminated by cross-pollination with genetically modified crops. In Canada, the National Farmers Union wants to government to make biotech firms liable for “transgenic” pollution of organic and traditional crops. Meanwhile, a team of British scientists argues that organic farming could […]

Soot Suit

New York state plans to sue 17 coal-burning power plants in the Midwest and the Virginias, a new approach in the effort to clean up air pollution that blows into the Northeast from Midwestern and Southern states. Northeastern states and the federal government have long fought to get coal-burning plants to reduce the emissions that […]

U.N.-Happy

The U.N. is warning that time is running out to forestall worldwide environmental problems, and it’s already too late to prevent some biodiversity loss and irreversible damage to ecosystems like tropical forests. An end-of-the-century report by the U.N. Environment Program, compiled by experts from more than 100 nations, predicts that a number of “full-scale emergencies” […]

More Senate Logrolling

The Senate killed a proposal yesterday that would have taken $33.6 million from the Forest Service timber-sale and road-building budget and put it toward protecting and surveying rare plants and animals in the Northwest and reducing the national debt. Republicans argued that the proposal, which Sens. Richard Bryan (D-Nev.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) tried to […]