Articles by Grist staff

aka ‘glamping’

I’m not sure how I feel about glamorous camping — aka “glamping” — a growing trend in North America among "affluent travelers who want to enjoy the outdoors but can’t fathom using a smelly outhouse." (Really? Me neither!) On the one hand, I wanted to start this post off with some comment about how this […]

BLM offers yet another plan for drilling on Alaska’s sensitive North Slope

In 1923, President Warren G. Harding designated 23 million acres on Alaska's North Slope as a national petroleum reserve. The ecologically sensitive northeast corner of the reserve -- which includes pristine Lake Teshekpuk and is vital habitat for breeding caribou, migrating birds, and Inupiat Eskimos -- was closed to energy development by the Reagan, Bush Elder, and Clinton administrations. But damned if the current administration won't pull out all the stops trying to access it! The Bushies tried in 2005. They tried in 2006 -- twice. Last fall, a judge blocked the administration from its quest, saying it had failed to consider environmental impacts of drilling in the area, and ordered the Bureau of Land Management to develop a new plan. Yesterday, the agency obliged, offering a vague proposal which suggests various options for development. The BLM will offer final recommendations after a two-month public-input period, which starts Friday. So get thee to inputting!

sources: Reuters, Associated Press, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

comment on the plan: Bureau of Land Management website

The latest in W. Va. adventures

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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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Tom White's directions to Yeager Airport instruct us to follow the signs outside of town, turn right at the first fork, and take the road straight up to the top of the hill. Like many of the instructions that we have received, he tells us, "And if you think you've gone too far, it's probably just a little bit farther up." The airport is, in fact, on a flattened mountain overlooking the city of Charleston, a location that shows how difficult it is to find flat land in the area.

Tom's business card reads "In deep? WHO YA GONNA CALL. Contract lawyer for hire ... former newspaper reporter, author, commercial pilot." He's also passionate about the environment, so he is a perfect fit for Southwings, a non-profit conservation organization that links volunteer pilots with journalists and researchers studying conservation issues in the south. It's a pretty crucial service for anybody looking at mountain top removal mining (MTR). On the ground, you can drive up a hollow all the way over the mountain and never know that just beyond the trees the mountains have been mined away.

A mine site with valley fill in Mingo and Logan counties. (photo: Katherine Chandler)

We Like Piña Coladas (and Getting Caught in the Rain)

Dole will make some tropical-fruit distribution carbon-neutral U.S. residents have a heckuva hard time finding a local pineapple (Hawaiians respectfully excluded, of course). But now you can nosh your tropical fruit with less guilt; Dole Food Co. has pledged to work toward offsetting 100 percent of the CO2 emissions that its subsidiary produces from growing […]