The winner of the 2023 Nina Mason Pulliam Award is "The Amazon, Undone" by Terrence McCoy, Júlia Ledur and Cecília do Lago, with photos by Raphael Alves and Rafael Vilela, for The Washington Post. Honorable mention goes to a team of students at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication for "Gaslit."
"Operators of a northern Arizona golf course think they have finally found the right repellent for javelinas ripping apart their turf — chili oil."
"Climate change is pushing the Sonoran Desert to the brink, with saguaro cacti as a bellwether of the impending disaster."
"A plant near homes in southwest Dallas that renders animal fat into biofuel is shutting down after The Dallas Morning News found that it appears to be operating without proper zoning. Neighbors have complained for years about the smell of dead and rotting animals that they say comes from the facility owned by Envirotein."
"This summer, as a historic heat wave strained Texas’ electrical grid and hiked power prices, Scott Stambush’s electricity bill went negative."
"The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has quietly proposed maintaining a target cancer-risk level for air pollution permits that scientists and public health officials consider inadequate to protect public health, especially for communities like those east of Houston that are exposed simultaneously to many sources of industrial emissions."
Reporting on environmental stories often leads to the state legislature, where key material can be frustratingly hard to access. Whether that’s because the state is deliberately hiding information, has poor systems for sharing it or isn’t even tracking it, there are ways to get what you need. Four seasoned environment reporters offer tips, tricks and commiseration.
"Even after a mail carrier’s recent death, the company continues to violate its own rules."
"The environmental health crisis ruminating in Houston’s Southwest Crossing neighborhood is the product of climate change and an unstable energy grid."
