SEJ members mourn the passing of David Sachsman, the George R. West Jr. Chair of Excellence in Communication and Public Affairs at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, on October 6, 2022.
"In many ways, it's a model election. The campaign runs for only one week, and all the candidates are well-grounded and devoid of hypocrisy."
"There are few books, shows or other tools to help parents and teachers talk to preschoolers about global warming. “Octonauts: Above and Beyond” is one of the first to try." ... "Climate scientists say its depictions are largely accurate, with one striking omission. The program says nothing about why the Earth is heating up: the burning of oil, gas and coal."
"Climate activists are "baffled" over Egypt's decision to have Coca-Cola - a major plastic producer - sponsor this year's global climate talks."
"As Earth’s ice melts once more, heed these ancient tales of land lost to the sea."
"It wasn’t long after Henry David Inglis arrived on the island of Jersey, just northwest of France, that he heard the old story. Locals eagerly told the 19th-century Scottish travel writer how, in a bygone age, their island was much more substantial, and that folks used to walk to the French coast. The only hurdle to their journey was a river—one easily crossed using a short bridge.
The winner of the 2022 Nina Mason Pulliam Award for Outstanding Environmental Reporting is Sharon Lerner for her two first-place winning entries: "The Department of Yes: How Pesticide Companies Corrupted the EPA and Poisoned America" (Kevin Carmody Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting, Small) and "EPA Exposed" (Outstanding Beat Reporting, Small).
Concerns about seaborne plastic waste go back decades, but science writer Juli Berwald suggests that myths and disinformation about sources and solutions continue to cloud the waters. From lentil-sized nurdles to sprawling fishing nets, 200 million tons of plastic now fill the ocean and, for her, it has become evident that the ocean plastics story is really a land story. But will the newly signed international treaty on plastics offer relief?
Electric utilities may sound like a wonky beat, but in the hands of L.A. Times’ Sammy Roth, it became an opportunity to weave together seemingly dry, technical subject matter into a series of award-winning stories on natural gas that captured flash points for climate change, communities of color and energy politics. Roth shares his reporting experience in the latest Inside Story Q&A.
For the first time in years, the United States has ratified a climate change-related treaty — one that phases out HFCs, the greenhouse gas widely used as a refrigerant. That leaves environmental reporters to report how the change will affect everyday objects like ACs, refrigerators and cars. TipSheet has the backstory on the Kigali Amendment, along with story ideas and reporting resources.
