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Big changes, happening quickly

Don’t miss (occasional Grist contributor) Christina Larson’s piece on environmentalism in China, which contains this pithy sentence: To understand why Chinese officials are genuinely concerned about the country’s growing environmental […]

Patrick Bond and Rehana Dada solve the mystery

What follows is a guest essay by Patrick Bond and Rehana Dada in memoriam for Sajida Khan.

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Internationally-known environmental activist Sajida Khan passed away on Sunday night in her Clare Road home at age 55. She was suffering her second bout of cancer, and chemotherapy had evacuated her beautiful long hair.

Before slipping into a coma last Thursday, she watched out her window, seeing within a few meters the interminable crawl of dumptrucks unloading heaps of stinking rubbish, as dust carried the smells and chemicals into her yard and home.

Khan's last, painful weeks were spent coming to peace with her failed struggle to close the Bisasar Road dump, a task that successive, dishonest Durban governments had promised to fulfill as early as 1987.

Now the vibrant, uncompromising activist has died, while the dump is thriving and in search of international investors. We don't need Belgian detective Hercule Poirot to learn why, for the answer is found in Agatha Christie's novel Murder on the Orient Express, in the Calais night coach where a man is found dead of 13 stab wounds.

Florida sees the climate light, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Leo, I’ve Got a Feeling We’re Not in Hollywood Anymore As Long As the Sox Are OK Crist Almighty Frankly, […]

Jarid Manos, CEO of the Great Plains Restoration Council, answers questions

Jarid Manos. With what environmental organization are you affiliated? What’s your job title? I am the founder and CEO of Great Plains Restoration Council, based in Fort Worth, Texas;, Wounded […]

Friday music blogging: Coconut Records

I’ve missed a few Fridays, what with vacation, but don’t worry, our long national nightmare is over: FMB is back. Today comes a song that was stuck in my head […]

Not eco-related

But everything about this story is just awesome.

Fare Isn’t Fair

L.A.’s bias toward rail and against buses is racist, argues Eric Mann When are public-transit rail projects a bad thing? When they come at the expense of a strong bus […]

Unhappy Feet

Manatees may lose endangered status, penguins may get it Manatees and penguins and hornshell clams, oh my! Yes, it’s time for an endangered-species update. Flush with success from removing the […]

Overfishing, pollution contribute to exponential rise

Oceana divers documenting the state of ecological communities in Cabrera Marine Park along the Mediterranean Coast encountered swarms of jellyfish, with numbers in the thousands, 30 miles south of the area.

On a seamount some 130 meters from the surface, Oceana's unmanned submarine robot revealed especially high concentrations of these jellies that have wreaked havoc along the Mediterranean in years past. Oceana is working to have the area added to the national park.

High concentrations of jellyfish are not a local problem. The same factors that allow jellyfish to "overflourish" in many parts of the world are at play here: Essentially humans are creating a jellyfish wonderland by overfishing and polluting our oceans.

Tracking the nation’s most brilliant up-and-coming health researchers

What’s that you say? Some vaginal spermicides may ease transmission of human papillomavirus (HPV)? Why, what kind of brilliant post doc researcher uncovered that counterintuitive and potentially industry-shaking result? Must […]