Articles by Grist staff

Some venues relocated to minimize eco-impact of Russia’s 2014 Olympics

Final venues have been approved for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. Following outcry from environmentalists over the original proposal for a gigantic winter-sports complex adjacent to a national park, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin reared his head and suggested changes to mitigate eco-impact. Organizers have relocated some venues, as well as cutting a […]

Ships must slow down where right whales hang out, says NOAA

Ships need to slow down when traveling in the hang-out spots of critically endangered right whales, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Wednesday. Ships 65 feet or longer must slow down to 10 knots (that’s 11.5 miles per hour for landlubbers) within 23 miles of major mid-Atlantic ports. Government scientists had originally suggested a […]

Overrun by humans, Galapagos Islands crack down

The Galapagos Islands are totally hot right now. To tourists, the island chain 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador offers stunning biodiversity (blue-footed boobies!) that infamously inspired Charles Darwin to write The Origin of Species. To residents, the tourism-driven economy offers high wages, top-notch public schools, and a dearth of violent crime. But as […]

E.U. Parliament votes on proposals to cut emissions 20 percent by 2020

On Tuesday, the European Parliament’s environment committee voted on a range of proposals intended to help achieve the European Union’s ambitious goal of cutting its greenhouse-gas emissions 20 percent by 2020. The committee voted to force E.U. utilities to buy all their pollution permits by 2013 and to enact strict carbon caps on power plants […]