Articles by Grist staff

Grand Canyon flood supported by feds, criticized by park officials

Federal flood control managers will let loose a rush of water through the Grand Canyon on Wednesday, which the feds say is necessary to restore sand banks and side pools, and National Park Service officials say is unnecessary, aimed at pleasing hydropower companies, and could irreparably destroy the habitat it’s meant to restore.

Ralph Nader picks running mate, ‘doomsday’ seed vault opens in Arctic, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Mate? … Check An Eye for a Buckeye The Damages Done How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Vault Well, Shoot Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Pearly Writes Bruce Almighty

USDA head suggests harvesting switchgrass on conservation land

Department of Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said Tuesday that it would be a “great idea” to allow farmers to grow and harvest biofuel-bound switchgrass on land currently set aside as wildlife habitat. More than 34 million acres in the U.S. are in the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays landowners to convert cropland to native grasses […]

EPA unions withdraw from cooperation agreement

Union local presidents representing the vast majority of U.S. EPA employees have withdrawn from a cooperation agreement with their Bush-appointed supervisors, claiming “abuses of our good nature and trust.” In a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, the unionized workers wrote that he retaliates against whistleblowers and ignores principles of scientific integrity “whenever political direction […]