"Day 1 Takeaways From Tribal Nations Summit"
"The White House held its tribal nations summit Monday for the first time in five years. The two-day event ends Tuesday."
"The White House held its tribal nations summit Monday for the first time in five years. The two-day event ends Tuesday."

A new project on toxic risks has yielded a tool making it far easier to use data from the Toxics Release Inventory to report on hotspots. Reporter’s Toolbox offers a guide to ProPublica’s impressive “Sacrifice Zones” special report, which maps cancer-causing industrial air pollution. Plus, join an in-depth virtual tutorial on the ProPublica tool co-sponsored by the Society of Environmental Journalists.
"After years of tribal requests, the president plans to block new oil and gas leases within 10 miles of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. The ban is likely to generate strong pushback from industry."
"Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko opened another potential front against Europe on Thursday, threatening to choke off gas supplies amid a deepening crisis that has brought migrants surging to E.U. borders and Western leaders planning to retaliate with more sanctions."
"Tangier Island, home to a Virginia fishing town and about 400 people, could be saturated by rising seas and convert to uninhabitable wetlands by 2051, according to an analysis released Monday.
The tiny island, which drew national attention for its residents’ support of former President Donald Trump and skepticism of climate change, is one of many Chesapeake Bay islands sinking because of local sea level rise and subsidence. People have lived on the island since the 18th century, but the residents could soon face displacement.
"A water buffalo, her stomach bloated and haunches sunken, lies dying on a dry expanse of cracked earth. Her calf nuzzles her but she doesn't respond. A few yards away, another water buffalo, all skin and bone, wallows in the mud at the edge of the drying marsh waters. The people who herd these animals in Iraq's southern marshlands are unable to save them."

Conserving crop diversity is a key to maintaining global food security, especially in the face of climate change. To understand those efforts, Portland, Ore.-based freelancer Virginia Gewin traveled to South America, supported by a grant from the Society of Environmental Journalists, to find out how Peruvian chefs and Amazon dwellers hope to save the rainforest by sharing native and wild foods.

After an 18-month buildup, a one-day U.N. Food Systems Summit earlier this fall generated hundreds of commitments to end global hunger and a dizzying array of alliances dedicated to the cause. Despite controversies surrounding the summit, this groundbreaking event highlighted opportunities for reporting on food and food systems. Award-winning agriculture journalist Chris Clayton shares his insights.
"Negotiators at COP26 are unlikely to deal with the challenges posed by climate migration, a failure that some experts say shows “a lack of political will.”"

The COVID-19 outbreak has left little unchanged — including how environment reporters do their jobs, given that many experts believe the disruption of the human-wild interface could be the source of the next deadly virus. The new Backgrounder makes the case in this analysis, looking at how societies — and journalists — handled this pandemic and must prepare for possible future outbreaks.