Articles by Grist staff

Carbon Sinking

Worldwide emissions of carbon from the burning of fossil fuels fell by 0.5 percent last year, the first drop since 1993, according to new estimates from the Worldwatch Institute. This decline took place even as the world economy expanded by 2.5 percent last year, undermining the argument that reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate […]

Boyz 'n the Oxygen Hood

Children in poor, predominantly minority neighborhoods in New York City are as much as 21 times more likely than children from affluent parts of the city to be hospitalized for asthma, according to a new study. Doctors suspect that a number of environmental factors contribute to the nation’s urban asthma epidemic, including indoor and outdoor […]

Frown and Bear It

Wild bear populations around the world are seriously threatened by poaching, pollution, and disappearing forests, according to a World Wildlife Fund report released yesterday. In Russia, home of the world’s largest brown bear population, poaching for hides and gallbladders has increased dramatically in the last decade, and poaching is rampant in China and southeast Asia. […]

Seedy ROM

In a project likely to revolutionize the study of biology and have important impacts on international environmental policy, a group of nations this month began setting up a database where information about all named species will be recorded — in effect, a catalog of life on earth. The project — launched by the Organization for […]