Articles by Grist staff

Feather Report

Birds in decline across North America Last week we heard that amphibians — the alleged environmental “canaries in the coal mine” — are dying off in record numbers. But what if birds, not amphibians, are the better environmental indicators, as John Flicker of the National Audubon Society claims? Well, then … we’re still hosed. According […]

The Meek Shall Inherit the Dearth

Climate change threatens to reverse progress on fighting poverty Global warming will disproportionately harm the world’s poorest people and “perpetuate injustices unprecedented in human history,” says Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth. Such is the conclusion of a sobering report called “Up in Smoke,” released this week by a 17-member coalition of environmental and […]

They’ve Been Working on the Railroad

Recycled plastic railroad ties making inroads There are nearly a billion wooden railroad ties holding together the railroads and subways of the U.S. That’s a lot of wood, and thus a lot of trees. It’s also a lot of creosote, a preservative chemical used on wood and deemed by the U.S. EPA “probably a human […]

We Take Our Coffee Green

Central American coffee industry rebounds by going green A global surplus of coffee five years ago sent the Central American coffee industry into a tailspin, but it is gradually recovering by focusing on high-quality beans — which in many cases means organically grown. In that rarest of things, a genuine win-win situation, the industry is […]