Articles by Grist staff

Jellyfish are everywhere, and that’s not a good thing

Photo: Neil Harmon The natural cycle of Mediterranean jellyfish populations is to swell every 12 years, plateau for four to six years, then subside. But massive groups of gelatinous jellies have been showing up for the past eight years, and they show no sign of flagging. In fact, jellies are proliferating worldwide, and that makes […]

Backing up McCain, Bush calls for ending offshore drilling moratorium

President Bush has joined John McCain in calling for an end to the offshore drilling moratorium that’s been in effect for most U.S. waters since the early 1980s. Bush’s reversal on the offshore-drilling issue follows on the heels of McCain’s big energy speech in Houston on Tuesday, where he advocated offshore drilling as a way […]

A test of six green dish soaps

Clean for a day. Ah, dish duty. Who hasn’t ignored it, dreaded it, rock-paper-scissored over it? But there comes a time in each eater’s life when dishes must be done. Happily, today’s generation of eco-detergents makes it a less-toxic task than in the past — though not completely pure. When I set out to test […]

McCain calls for offshore drilling, renewables, and conservation in energy speech

Republican presidential candidate John McCain tried to pack something for everyone into a big energy speech yesterday, saying the U.S. needs more conservation and renewables as well as more oil drilling, oil refineries, “clean-burning coal,” and nuclear power plants. He called for ending a federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling, but reiterated his opposition to […]