Articles by Grist staff

Reusable shopping bags not so green if you don’t use ’em

These days, you can’t swing a dead cabbage without hitting a reusable bag. The darlings of the environmental movement (totes, not cabbages) are increasingly being provided free or cheap to green-minded consumers. And they serve a good purpose: four or five reusable bags, used at least once a week, can replace the use of 520 […]

Last year’s world CO2 emissions exceeded most dire IPCC predictions

The world’s carbon dioxide emissions in 2007 exceeded even some of the direst predictions of climate scientists, growing 3 percent from 2006 according to an annual report from the Global Carbon Project. The climb in overall emissions last year was especially surprising given the economic downturn that was expected to help curb emissions. For the […]

The new corporate threat to our water supplies

This is a guest essay by authors and filmmakers Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman. Their book Thirst exposed how the corporate drive to control water has become a catalyst for community resistance to globalization. This essay was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. —– In the last few years, […]

Snippets from the news

• Global carbon-dioxide emissions rising rapidly. • Cities produce less than two-fifths of greenhouse-gas emissions, says study. • In 2002, EPA prepared to declare public-health emergency over asbestos contamination — then met with White House and decided not to. • E.U. lawmakers deny Big Auto more lenient emissions curbs. • Climate-change program that lost federal […]