Articles by Grist staff

And Now for Something Completely Familiar

China’s environment still terribly polluted, getting worse Almost nowhere else on earth today is a source for so much environmental gloom and doom as China. To sum up: It’s bad. In fact, for those prone to hopelessness … read on, there’s plenty to get depressed about. Nearly 500 million people in China lack access to […]

MTR activists don’t expect progress until the Bush administration is gone

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This week, Gabriel Pacyniak and Katherine Chandler are traveling throughout southern West Virginia to report on mountaintop removal mining (MTR). They'll be visiting coalfields with abandoned and "reclaimed" MTR mines, and talking with residents, activists, miners, mine company officials, local reporters, and politicians.

We'll publish their reports throughout the week.

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As we wind down our trip, news breaks that the federal Office of Surface Mining has issued new rules that will gut the already weak protections against burying streams during the course of mountaintop removal mining. The change would make it even more difficult, if not impossible, for residents of affected hollows like the Branhams to challenge MTR sites and the accompanying valley fills that threaten their homes.

Mountaintop removal site impacting residents below in the valley. (photo: Katherine Chandler)

The rule change will be a substantial setback, but not a surprise, to people like Joe Lovett, executive director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment in Lewisburg, W.Va. When we talked to him by phone earlier during the trip, Joe sounded somber. He has been pressing lawsuits against MTR for years, mostly based on the impact of MTR on stream valleys. Although he has won several promising cases, he doesn't believe anything can change under the Bush administration. "The Bust administration will do whatever it takes to get around any court order that we win," he says. "[They] will just not tell the coal industry, 'Enough is enough, no more valley fills'."

New species naming rights on the auction block

Do I hear a bid for naming the walking shark — the walking shark? Or the flasher wrasse, or the lionfish? Do I hear a bid? I’m looking for a bidder, a bidder who wants to name these fish. These new species have never been named — do I hear a new name, a new […]

We’re all gonna die

Look out below: Infectious diseases are emerging faster than at any time in history, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned in a report on Thursday that urged closer global cooperation to tackle the growing health threats of the 21st century. The WHO underlined that the threats knew no boundaries and included not only epidemics, but […]