National (U.S.)

 By CATHERINE COONEY

You can feel it the minute you step inside: the cool concrete flooring, oversized windows, neutral colors and low lighting provide a sense of open space and cleanliness. The modern-styled architecture seems out of place in Washington, D.C., especially on a hot, smoggy, July afternoon. I'm in Lake Tahoe, I thought, as I walked into the school building where my daughter's summer camp was held.

 By SALLY DENEEN

If you haven't covered recycling for a while, you – and your audience – might be surprised by how things have changed and the variety of new angles to explore.

The number of curbside recycling programs now surpasses 9,000. Yet, a greater percentage of recyclable plastic bottles and aluminum cans are landing in the garbage.

By JACKLEEN de LA HARPE

 By MICHAEL MANSUR

This is the first issue of the SEJournal published since the passing of Mike Dunne, our assistant editor.

Each issue, Mike would assemble "The Beat" and an "Inside Story" on some outstanding work of journalism, probing the author about why he chose to lead with this fact. Or asking why he chose to organize a story in this certain way.

 By BUD WARD

It was all climate change, all the time – 24/7 as they say. SEJ's 17th annual conference, at Stanford University Sept. 5- 9, was a veritable smorgasbord, an unending feast, for those on the climate change beat. But only for those who actually wanted that particular diet, you understand. Dozens of ostensibly unrelated environmental issues – as well as the delicious "tools of the trade" sessions on new media and like – were addressed at the conference.

Pollution of lakes, streams and oceans, the long-lasting effects of mining and mineral processing and attempts to turn laws protecting fragile habitats on their heads were the subjects of the best environmental journalism of 2006-2007, according to the Society of Environmental Journalists.

 By DAVID HELVARG

Arriving in the green sprawl of Stanford University, the Virginia Tech of the West, I was greeted by Frisbee-tossing SEJers high on the beat's new relevance amidst growing public concern over rapid climate change and fear about the kind of world Anna Nichole Smith's baby will grow up in.

 By BILL DAWSON

Many signs suggest that environmental topics – not just environmental news, in the strict sense – are assuming a bigger place in the journalistic universe, perhaps becoming an enduring Big Deal for editors, news directors, network executives and other media decision-makers.

(Historical note for newcomers to environmental journalism: The prospects for wide-ranging Big Deal status for the beat have waxed and waned in the past.)

 By TIM WHEELER

A reader sent me an email recently asking why my newspaper so often seemed to take a "negative slant" on the day's news. "All we hear is crime, the death of real estate, toxins, and maybe if someone is in a good mood something about how much fun this place is," the frustrated reader lamented.

 By BILL DAWSON

In a time of ever-accelerating change in American journalism, it probably shouldn't have come as that much of a surprise that one of the big winners in SEJ's 6th Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment was a documentary with the trappings of a cheesy horror movie.