Articles by Grist staff

Snippets from the news

• Hawaii will require solar water heaters in new homes. • Solar-power demand too much for New Jersey. • Greenpeace ranks electronics manufacturers. • Brazil seizes livestock to protect rainforest. • Nearly 50 percent of Republicans doubt earth is getting warmer. • International Whaling Commission delays decisions.

Global energy demand will grow 50 percent by 2030, says EIA

The world isn’t going to kick its energy-sucking habits anytime soon, the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicted Wednesday. By 2030, global energy demand will grow 50 percent, says the EIA report, mostly in China and other developing countries. Some 124 new nuclear plants will be built worldwide by 2030, and natural gas will be in […]

California license plates will go without Wyland whale tail

Some 126,000 California license plates sport a whale tail designed by artist Robert Wyland, but the famed marine muralist is now withdrawing his permission for the state to use the art. A few months ago, Wyland asked the California Coastal Commission to donate 20 percent of profits from the plate to his ocean-conservation group. The […]

As gas prices rise, Americans move back to the urbs

For decades, Americans have trickled steadily out of cities into suburbia — and then into exurbia. But with gas prices high and likely to stay there, the wallet-conscious are now poised to trickle back in. In 2003, the average suburban household spent $1,422 on gasoline annually; in April 2008, that had leaped to $3,196 per […]