Articles by Grist staff

Hurricane Ike dealt big blow to Texas wildlife and waterways

Hurricane Ike caused plenty of problems for Gulf Coast humans, but now it looks like the storm has also messed with area wildlife. Ike’s storm surge helped turn some freshwater wetlands as far as 20 miles inland into salty marshes hostile to many freshwater fish, as well as other wildlife. “[The salt infusion] exasperates everything […]

Overfishing drove Somali fishers to piracy

Pirates involved in the high-profile hijacking of an arms shipment off the coast of Somalia said recently that they were driven to piracy by overfishing. In 1991, the country’s government collapsed and patrols that had guarded against international plunder of Somalia’s tuna-rich waters suddenly stopped. Commercial fishers from around the world rushed in and decimated […]

Snippets from the news

• Mayors envision 4.2 million new green jobs. • Investment in cleantech continues to soar. • Greenpeace and Sierra Club Canada: Don’t vote Tory. • Climate change could kill off one-third of species by 2100, say scientists. • Coca-Cola lightens cans in Europe. • IKEA bags bags.

CFLs can increase mercury pollution in some areas, study finds

Energy-saving compact fluorescent lightbulbs can lead to an increase in mercury pollution in some regions, according to a new study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. The study looked at mercury emissions in 130 countries and all 50 U.S. states to determine what role CFLs, which contain mercury, may have in upping mercury […]