Articles by Grist staff

Goodbye Pennzoil, Hello Mazola

A new biodegradable vegetable-oil lubricant could completely replace petroleum-based motor oil in everything from cars to chain saws, say the Colo.-based inventors, who recently received a patent for their innovation. Meanwhile, two researchers from New York have won a patent for an environmentally friendly solvent that cleans clothes, an alternative to the toxic pechloroethylene (Perc), […]

Grimace and Bear it

Western GOP governors are reconciling themselves to the notion that the Endangered Species Act is unlikely to be changed until after the 2000 presidential election. The governors, who were attending a Western Governors’ Association meeting this weekend, back a loosening of the law that would make it easier on landowners, but they don’t sense broad-based […]

More Exhausting News

The air people breathe in their cars can be up to 10 times more polluted than the air outside, according to a study released yesterday by California air quality officials. As much as half of the pollution inside the vehicles tested was spewed by the vehicle ahead. Car ventilation systems were shown to be marginally […]

Manatees Buffetted

Jimmy Buffet has joined the crusade of 22 environmental groups who are threatening to sue the feds and the Florida state government for failing to protect endangered manatees from being killed by boats. Collisions with boats kill more manatees than any other known cause; 66 were wiped out last year, and this year may see […]