Grist | Topics | 25 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 25 of 25
Headline	Author	Published	Section
Farming with smarts and humor An NC farmer makes the radio	Tom Philpott	30 May 2008	Gristmill
One of my favorite things about small-scale farming has been meeting other small-scale farmers. In short, you've got to be a bit of a character to decide to spend your days playing in the dirt while also trying to squeeze a living out of it. Gallows humor is a typical characteristic, as is a certain joie de vivre, at least when the the stress level isn't too high. One of the ...
Topics: agriculture, food, North Carolina, sustainable ag (all these topics)

Removing mountaintop removal North Carolina bill would ban burning of coal from mountaintop-removal mining	Kate Sheppard	29 May 2008	Gristmill
On Tuesday, North Carolina State Rep. Pricey Harrison introduced legislation in the state House that would ban the burning of coal obtained through mountaintop-removal mining. If it passes, North Carolina would become the first state in the nation with such a law. The mining method isn't practiced in North Carolina, but 61 percent of the state's power comes from coal; North Carolina is second only to Georgia in the amount of MTR-mined coal it burns. According to ...
Topics: coal, energy, legislation, mining, Muckraker, news, North Carolina, politics, state politics (all these topics)

Curbside treecycling High-end use for urban trees saves landfill space	Erik Hoffner	12 Apr 2008	Gristmill
A company in North Carolina is making some good things from urban trees which have to be cut down for one reason or another: high-end lumber from what was once considered good only for firewood or mulch. They process 15,000 to 20,000 board feet a year of local urban lumber from private land for use in homes, sheds, barns, farms, or woodworking projects. It's estimated that 2 million board feet of lumber is wasted annually in the local landfills in the Charlotte metro ...
Topics: greenish companies, North Carolina, placemaking, waste (all these topics)

Don't Tase Me, Man! Protesters arrested outside N.C. coal plant		01 Apr 2008	News
Posted at 10:52 AM on 01 Apr 2008 Eight protesters were Tased and arrested after locking themselves to bulldozers at a Duke Energy coal plant in North Carolina Tuesday morning. Activists say the plant under construction is, in short, a terrible idea. "In the face of catastrophic climate change, building a new coal plant is tantamount to signing a death sentence for our generation," said one protester. Umbrella group Rising ...
Topics: coal, energy, grassroots activism, news, North Carolina (all these topics)

'But Americans won't ride trains' Defying conventional wisdom, NC residents express desire for public transport	Tom Philpott	18 Mar 2008	Gristmill
Photo: Roadsidepictures You know that old saw about how greens should shut up about public transportation because Americans hate trains and insist on getting around in their own private chunks of resource-sucking steel and plastic? Well, that may be going the way of $2/gallon gas. Get this, from a recent poll of North Carolina residents: Potential new railway options were embraced positively by those surveyed. Commuter rails in urban areas and high-sp ...
Topics: North Carolina, public transportation, placemaking (all these topics)

U. of North Carolina students say no to Smithfield pork Pushing for 'fair food' on campus in the land of hog factories	Tom Philpott	08 Mar 2008	Gristmill
Last year, a bunch of students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill got tired of the industrial dreck served up in the cafeteria. They discovered that the landscape around them was producing some amazing, chemical-free meat and produce and set about figuring out how to get some in school dining halls. Photo: iStockphoto Led by seniors Sally Lee and David Hamilton, they declared themselves FLO Food (FLO = fair, local, organic), and began negot ...
Topics: agriculture, campus activism, education, food, industrial ag, local food, North Carolina, organic food, sustainable ag (all these topics)

Small-scale, community-owned biodiesel goes global An honest, interesting statement from Piedmont Biofuels of North Carolina	Tom Philpott	06 Mar 2008	Gristmill
I'm a fierce critic of biofuels, but I've always had a soft spot for small, region-based biodiesel projects that create fuel from local resources, providing jobs in the bargain. (I proudly ran Emily Gertz's feature on the topic in our 2006 biofuels series.) The income from such projects remains within communities, rippling around and building wealth. Rather than being just another conduit for transferring cash from communities into the pockets of global investors, fu ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, industrial ag, North Carolina, waste (all these topics)

No country for thirsty men In North Carolina's Triangle, a severe drought has leaders stumped	Tom Philpott	26 Feb 2008	Gristmill
North Carolina's Triangle -- Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh -- counts as the state's economic, educational, and political engine. It's also very quickly running out of water, parched by a severe drought.Are the area's leaders doing anything constructive to respond to the situation? So far, the signs aren't encouraging. I've been following the story in the excellent daily Raleigh News & Observer. On Monday, the N&O reported that Raleigh has exactly one agreemen ...
Topics: North Carolina, placemaking, severe weather, water crisis (all these topics)

Duke It Out Duke Energy will build likely its last coal plant in North Carolina		30 Jan 2008	News
Posted at 4:30 PM on 30 Jan 2008 Well, we've got good news and bad news: North Carolina air-quality officials have granted Duke Energy a permit for a new coal plant (boo) in what Duke Carolinas President Ellen Ruff says is "very likely the last coal plant you'll see coming from Duke" in the Carolinas (rah!). The permit stipulates that four older Duke coal plants in the state be retired before the new one g ...
Topics: coal, energy, news, North Carolina (all these topics)

Lejeune Bugged U.S. Navy must notify N.C.-based Marines of exposure to contaminated water		01 Oct 2007	News
Posted at 10:14 AM on 01 Oct 2007 Some 1 million Marines stationed at North Carolina's Camp Lejeune between 1958 and 1987 drank, cooked with, and showered in toxic water; under a defense reauthorization bill amendment recently approved by the Senate, the U.S. Navy would be required to, um, let them know. The federal government closed the base's wells in the mid-'80s after confirming they were contaminated w ...
Topics: Department of Defense, health, news, North Carolina, toxics, water pollution (all these topics)

Progress Doesn't Pay North Carolina fines driver for not paying taxes on vegetable-oil fuel		12 Jun 2007	Daily Grist
Progress Doesn't Pay North Carolina fines driver for not paying taxes on vegetable-oil fuel A kerfuffle in North Carolina shows what might be in store for users of DIY fuel: the state fined a veggie-oil-burning driver $1,000 for not paying fuel taxes, told him to expect a $1,000 fine from the feds, and informed him that he'd have to post a $2,500 bond to be allowed to use veggie oil. "With the high cost of fuel ...
Topics: biofuels, energy, news, North Carolina (all these topics)

From Concentrate How food processing got into the hands of a few giant companies	Tom Philpott	26 Apr 2007	Victual Reality
Two years ago, dairy giant Dean Foods shuttered a milk-processing facility in Wilkesboro, a town at the eastern edge of North Carolina's Appalachian Mountains. Photo: iStockphoto Dean processes 35 percent of the fluid milk in the U.S. and Canada -- roughly equal to the combined market share of its three biggest rivals combined. In my area of western North Carolina, it processes 100 percen ...
Topics: food and agriculture, industrial ag, North Carolina, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Gloom and Plume Hazardous-waste plant explosion forces evacuations in Apex, N.C.		06 Oct 2006	Daily Grist
Gloom and Plume Hazardous-waste plant explosion forces evacuations in Apex, N.C. An explosion at a hazardous-waste disposal plant in Apex, N.C., late last night forced the evacuation of more than half the town. Some 17,500 people left their homes, and more than 40 have been hospitalized. The toxic plume that emerged from ironically named Environmental Quality Industrial Services is laced with chlorine gas and possibly pesticid ...
Topics: news, North Carolina, toxics (all these topics)

Bird Mentality New sightings of ivory-billed woodpecker in Florida		26 Sep 2006	Daily Grist
Bird Mentality New sightings of ivory-billed woodpecker in Florida Bird researchers have spotted ivory-billed woodpeckers 14 times in the past 18 months in a remote area of the Florida panhandle -- on some occasions, two at the same time -- according to a report in the Canadian online journal Avian Conservation and Ecology. The team of scientists also made some 300 sound recordings of the woodpeckers, fou ...
Topics: Florida, logging, news, North Carolina, wildlife (all these topics)

IBM Me Up, Scotty On computer recycling	Umbra Fisk	08 Aug 2005	Ask Umbra
Dear Umbra, Do you have any suggestions for locating a computer-recycling service in the Piedmont area of North Carolina? Janet Fortune Dearest Janet, Frankly, I couldn't even have located the Piedmont area of North Carolina before you wrote. With today's technology, however, such ignorance is no barrier to giving advice. The rest of you, listen up, because Janet's question will be your question some day. Electronic waste is a big ...
Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, e-waste, green living, North Carolina, recycling, toxics (all these topics)

Semper Filthy Controversy Grows Over Contaminated Water on Marine Base		28 Jan 2004	Daily Grist
Semper Filthy Controversy Grows Over Contaminated Water on Marine Base In what could be one of the largest contaminated water cases in U.S. history, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against the U.S. military over dirty water at Camp Lejeune, a North Carolina Marine Corps base. In 1980, tests of drinking water wells at the base revealed high levels of toxic chemicals, but the Marine Corps did no ...
Topics: health, North Carolina, toxics, US EPA, water pollution (all these topics)

There's No Base Like Home		03 Jul 2003	Daily Grist

Topics: health, North Carolina, toxics, water pollution (all these topics)

Turtle Wane		20 May 2003	Daily Grist
Turtle Wane Having depleted their own nation's once-plentiful turtle populations, Chinese buyers are now offering top dollar for turtles from the southern U.S. In the last three years, there's been a dramatic upswing in the number of turtles exported to China, where the animals' meat is considered a delicacy and their shells are ground up to make virility powders. In 2002, ...
Topics: Alabama, China, marine life, Mississippi, North Carolina, South, South Carolina (all these topics)

First in Fright		27 Feb 2003	Daily Grist
First in Fright A bankrupt paper mill in North Carolina is refusing to take responsibility for millions of gallons of wastewater, polluted landfills, and toxic chemicals it produced, leaving state environmental regulators stymied and alarmed. "We've just never dealt with anybody who said, 'We're going to walk out the door and leave it,'" said Forrest Westall, the regional water-quality supervi ...
Topics: North Carolina, pollution and waste, water pollution (all these topics)

Sweet Carolina		29 Jan 2003	Daily Grist
Sweet Carolina For the first time, residents of North Carolina will be able to buy their electricity from renewable sources such as wind, solar, and biomass. Under "NC Greenpower," a new plan approved by the state earlier this week, industrial electricity customers can choose to pay about 2.5 extra cents per kilowatt hour for green power; residential consumers would pay roughly ...
Topics: energy, green living, North Carolina, renewable energy, wind power (all these topics)

Bright Lights on the Big City		04 Dec 2002	Daily Grist
Bright Lights on the Big City Residents of New York, rejoice: Your city might be noisy, crowded, and crass, but it's also the most compact megalopolis in the U.S. That's right -- the Big Apple ranked number one on Smart Growth America's recently released list compar ...
Topics: air pollution, California, Florida, Hawaii, health, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, placemaking, pollution and waste, Rhode Island (all these topics)

The Science of the Lambs		03 Dec 2002	Daily Grist
The Science of the Lambs It ain't easy being a scientist in farm country: Researchers studying the health effects of agricultural pollution say they are being silenced by fearful superiors and harassed by individual farmers, farm groups, and even the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which funds and controls much of the research ...
Topics: Department of Agriculture, food and agriculture, health, Iowa, Midwest, North Carolina, pollution and waste, water pollution (all these topics)

That's Sprawl, Folks		18 Oct 2002	Daily Grist
That's Sprawl, Folks Communities in California, Georgia, and North Carolina are the worst offenders when it comes to suburban sprawl in the United States, according to a three-year study released yesterday by the Washington, D.C.-based coalition Smart Growth America. The study, based on the work of researchers at Rutgers University and Cornell University, measur ...
Topics: California, environmental non-government organizations, Georgia, North Carolina, placemaking (all these topics)

Let It Allard Hang Out		17 Apr 2002	Daily Grist
Let It Allard Hang Out The plot thickens in the controversy over the federal government's decision to ship weapons-grade plutonium from Colorado to South Carolina for temporary storage. Arms-control advocates and Democratic politicians in South Carolina allege that the Bush administration is backing a shipment plan in order to improve the re-election prospects of Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo ...
Topics: Colorado, North Carolina, nuclear power, politics, South Carolina (all these topics)

Chamber of Horrors	Ben White	24 May 2000	Muckraker
You'd think the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wouldn't have much free time on its hands these days, what with the raging debate over permanent normal trade relations for China. But the industry-friendly group recently managed to cobble together a charming volume called The Environmentalists' Little Green Book, a compendium of off-the-wall quotes and blistering bon mots from various environmental luminaries and lesser-knowns. The slim 47-page booklet beg ...
Topics: Delaware, energy, Maryland, Muckraker, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, politics, Virginia, West Virginia (all these topics)

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