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  • At a Loss for Birds

    FCC to Investigate Why Millions of Birds Fly into Cell-Phone Towers The Federal Communications Commission is launching an investigation into the reasons why high numbers of birds are killed by flying into cell-phone and broadcast towers in the U.S. Each year, an estimated 5 million to 50 million birds die this way, says the U.S. […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • Lessons in environmentally friendly living from New York City

    In 1975, Ernest Callenbach published a slim book called Ecotopia, in which the Northwest secedes from the United States and establishes itself as an ecological paradise. The text became a counterculture classic, and the term “Ecotopia” entered the lexicon, embodying the American tendency to think of the continent’s forested far coast as a land of […]

    Alan Durning Cities

  • Arson Ick

    Radical Environmental Group Claims Responsibility for San Diego Fire Saying it was trying to send a message about “rampant urban development,” the Earth Liberation Front has claimed responsibility for a $50 million fire that destroyed an apartment complex in San Diego two weeks ago. No one was injured in the fire. The destruction of the […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • Grid and Bear It

    Conservation, Alternative Energy Get Boost from Blackout In most of the U.S. and Canada, last Thursday’s history-making blackout is little more than a memory: The lights are on, the AC is cranking, transportation systems are running, and it’s business as usual. Still, some officials, including New York Gov. George Pataki (R) and Ontario Premier Ernie […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • Let the Games Be Green

    Enviros Accuse 2004 Athens Olympic Organizers of Green Failings Organizers of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens are already getting poor scores from environmentalists, who say the Greeks have missed numerous opportunities to make the games more eco-friendly. Greece won its bid to host the games in part by pledging to protect vulnerable natural and […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • Flexible Fools

    Automakers Can Dodge Fuel-Economy Rules with Flex-Fuel Vehicles U.S. automakers are dramatically boosting production of “flexible-fuel” cars and trucks that can run on either gasoline or E85, a mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gas that results in lower greenhouse gas emissions — but this trend is more likely to harm the environment […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • Pigs in Open Space

    Developers Preserve Open Spaces to Lure Clients and Please Regulators Multimillion-dollar houses, spas, golf courses, tennis courts, open space — sounds like the old Sesame Street game of “one of these things is not like the others.” But it turns out that untrammeled wilderness is one of the hottest new amenities people look for in […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • 4 X 4 X 10 Mpg

    Popularity of Pickup Trucks Spreads Beyond Farms Once upon a time, the humble pickup truck was the vehicle of choice for hard-working, down-home, country-music kind of guys. These days, the pickup, in ever swankier incarnations, is coveted by a far broader audience, from stockbrokers to soccer moms — a trend that has sobering implications for […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • Moment in the Sun

    Okay, so it didn’t get quite as much press as Ben Curtis’s surprise victory in the British Open or the Funny Cide-Empire Maker standoff in the Belmont Stakes, but for the 20 cars that took off from Chicago on July 13, the race was every bit as exciting. The event in question was the American […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • Rubber Ducky, You’re the $100

    Thanks to “Sesame Street,” everybody over the age of two knows that rubber duckies make bath time lots of fun — but who knew the little yellow guys could make oceanography a bit more fun, too? Eleven years ago, a shipping container carrying 29,000 rubber bath toys (frogs, turtles, and beavers, as well as the […]

    Grist staff Cities