Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Twitter logo Print HTML logo
Backgrounders

Backgrounder banner

 

Issue Backgrounder is a monthly SEJournal Online column to help journalists better cover emerging environmental issues, especially challenging or underreported topics. Each Backgrounder focuses on a specific environmental topic, offering key questions, basic answers, source contacts and other resources.

For questions and comments, or to suggest future Issue Backgrounders, email Backgrounder Editor Joseph A. Davis at sejournaleditor@sej.org.

Public

June 24, 2020

  • Post-COVID-19 City Design May Transform Built Environment

    In the aftermath of the pandemic, the so-called built environment is likely to get a thorough reexamination, whether it’s to reconsider commuting, shopping, recreation, eating out or taking in sporting events. Our latest Issue Backgrounder looks at the top ways coronavirus will force us to rethink our cities and how we live in and travel through them.

    VIEW ARTICLE

May 27, 2020

  • Disaster Preparedness Key Amid Pandemic

    Unheeded warnings are the hallmark of many disasters. And with coronavirus still hobbling the nation, communities and journalists must now watch for all the ways COVID-19 could make even the most familiar hazards far worse. Prepare with this extensive Backgrounder, which touches on issues around evacuations and emergency readiness when facing storms, fires, toxic releases and more.

    VIEW ARTICLE

April 22, 2020

March 25, 2020

February 19, 2020

January 22, 2020

  • EPA Resists Squeeze, But for How Long?

    Despite warnings that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would be dismantled under the Trump administration, it remains very much alive, thanks to the realities of politics and litigation. Yet its staffing, enforcement and science advisory roles remain under the gun. In the latest of our Backgrounders for the “2020 Journalists’ Guide to Energy & Environment,” we read the tea leaves on the future of the EPA.

    VIEW ARTICLE

January 15, 2020

  • Future of Nuclear Power Hangs in Balance of Climate, Costs

    Safety has traditionally been the key question when discussing the realities of nuclear power. But in assessing the future of the nuclear industry amid debates over its potential to help tackle the climate crisis, the latest entry in our “2020 Journalists’ Guide to Energy & the Environment” reports that there may be an equally pressing concern. 

    VIEW ARTICLE

November 13, 2019

  • Environmental Stories 'Down The Road' in 2020 From Highway Bill

    A massive transportation measure is working its way through Congress, with environmental elements including climate change and public transit. But will this “must-pass” measure actually pass in the coming year? Or will it be bogged down by politics or looming questions of how to pay for it? A new Issue Backgrounder explains.

    VIEW ARTICLE

October 30, 2019

  • Another Bad-News Year Ahead for U.S. Coal?

    As U.S. coal’s comedown continues, our latest Issue Backgrounder takes a close look at the factors behind the industry’s decline and finds a combination of economics, competition and shifting global markets, along with aging technology, politics and environmental pushback. What’s in store for coal in 2020?

    VIEW ARTICLE

September 18, 2019

  • Algae — Society’s Big, Green … and Emerging Menace

    It’s poisoning fresh waters across the United States, as well as elsewhere in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. Blue-green algae is on the rise, lingering later and later into the year. Our new Issue Backgrounder explains the contributing factors behind the potent toxin’s scourge, its societal and public health ramifications, and the many angles and resources to tell the story.

    VIEW ARTICLE

Pages

Search Publications

Browse Publications

Advertisement

2024 Outrider Nuclear Reporting Summit graphic

Advertise with SEJ

 

Subscriptions

SEJournal Online is the digital news magazine of the Society of Environmental Journalists. Learn more about SEJournal Online, including submission, subscription and advertising information.