Articles by Grist staff

A first-hand view from Chicago’s overheated marathon

Chicago's annual marathon was shut down early on Sunday due to oppressive heat and humidity, which led to dozens of hospitalizations. Grister Sarah Hardin was on the scene and offers this first-hand report:

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It's become a tradition for my geographically widespread family to converge on Chicago in October for the city's annual marathon. We've been volunteering at the marathon ever since my cousin married the operations manager for the event. This was the first year I was able to join in -- and what a year, too. While 2006 saw 37-degree temperatures and cold rain all morning, this year's runners experienced some of the hottest weather Chicago's seen in October since the 1970s.

I witnessed up close and personal just how much planning goes into coordinating such a large-scale event (the race draws around 45,000 runners and 1.5 million spectators annually), and then I saw hundreds of people suffering from the effects of heat exhaustion, dehydration, and hyponatremia. Kudos to the marathon coordinators for making a difficult (and perhaps unpopular) decision to shut the course down and encourage people to reroute or walk the rest of it. It can't be an easy task to convince stubborn marathoners to stop running.

Group will do organic lawn care outside Capitol

Nonprofit SafeLawns.org has received permission to use organic gardening techniques on a portion of the National Mall for a two-year trial period. Can environmentally friendly soil treatments be embraced at the site of battling over a Live Earth concert? You could cut the tension with a spade.

A Grist special series on food and farming

You know where babies come from, sure — but do you know where Tater Tots come from? In this two-week series, we’ll take you on a behind-the-scenes tour of your very own diet. Everybody eats, every day, but we tend to gloss over the details. Things like the work that really goes into putting food […]

Green investment funds are taking off

Eco-friendly investment funds are sssssssssssmokin’!