"An Indigenous land defender was shot and killed on Sunday in Cotacachi, Ecuador, where he was marching in protest of high costs of living and government crackdowns on Indigenous and environmental activists."
"The administration is opening millions of additional acres of public land to mining while slashing royalty rates and environmental regulations for coal. Environmentalists warn of skyrocketing costs and threats to land, water and air."
Before giving summer its send-off, consider that heat kills more people in the U.S. annually than any other weather-related disaster. Phoenix journalist Katherine Davis-Young is well acquainted with this human toll. Drawing on her own reporting experience, she looks at how to cover extreme heat in your community. Pro tip: Don’t wait until next summer to familiarize yourself with vulnerable communities and investigate local mitigation policies.
Fall deer hunting season is getting underway across much of North America. And with it, the uncertain risks from chronic wasting disease. Environmental journalists would do well to report the story to help keep safe those who eat the meat of deer and elk they kill. The latest TipSheet has more on the backstory, along with 10 story ideas and reporting resources.
Journalistic values — whether code of ethics-style values like truth, context and fairness, or news-style values like impact, novelty and human interest — are nothing to be shy about and can make for great journalism. But some values can be distorted and drag journalism down a dead end, argues the new WatchDog Opinion. Two environmental cases where false balance does damage.
"The price gap between used electric and gas cars is now just $900 — that's the lowest ever."
"Environmental Protection Agency employees are being told not to participate in events hosted by one of the nation’s premier environmental legal associations, according to a letter reviewed by Bloomberg Law."
"An Indonesian archipelago that’s home to three-fourths of Earth’s coral species, a stretch of Icelandic coast with 70% of the country’s plant life and an area along Angola’s Atlantic coast featuring savannahs, forests and estuaries are among 26 new UNESCO-designated biosphere reserves. The United Nations cultural agency says the reserves — 785 sites in 142 countries, designated since 1971 — are home to some of the planet’s richest and most fragile ecosystems."
"President Donald Trump’s transportation department has been pulling back grants already announced for recreational trails and bicycle lanes, telling local officials their projects fail to promote road capacity or are “hostile to motor vehicles.”"
"The state’s first climate deception case unfurled Thursday in North Carolina Business Court, where attorneys for the town of Carrboro and Duke Energy spent six hours sparring over legal arcana to answer a single question: Should a jury hear a case alleging that Duke Energy is responsible for lying about the link between climate change and extreme weather that has inflicted millions of dollars of property damage on the town? "
