When the Society of Environmental Journalists offered a platform for freelancers to have their voices heard, they showed up — and so did editors willing to lend advice and support. In the new Freelance Files column, co-editor Elyse Hauser takes a look at outcomes from a daylong connection space dedicated to freelance environmental journalists and their needs.
"The trial, which starts Monday, comes as Canada rolls back climate policies. A new government report warns the country could experience 5 degrees Celsius of warming under current emissions trajectories."
"“The numbers that matter most are still secret,” said Monika Gerhart of the Gulf States Renewable Energy Industries Association."
"Researchers found that treating PFAS measurements below laboratory reporting limits as “zero” may underestimate how widespread the chemicals are in U.S. drinking water."
"After more than three years of war, a lull in fighting raised hopes that a good harvest would ease hunger in Sudan. Instead, El Niño has delivered a damaging drought and, in some areas, led to the lowest rainfall since 1984, the year famine devastated Sudan and Ethiopia."
"If climate change continues apace, 96 percent of shallow coral reef ecosystems may collapse within 50 years, including in Australia’s Great Barrier reef."
"The president temporarily waived clean-air rules for industrial facilities that spew cancer-causing gases. Then his appointees worked to gut the regulations altogether."
"About 50,000 more people died in European cities between June and August than would have if temperatures had not been abnormally hot, researchers estimate."
"A few days before Christmas in 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency received a complaint through its National Response Center: “There has been a horrible smell in the air for almost a week,” the caller said, according to state records. “It’s so bad it’s making people throw up.”"
"West Virginia’s attorney general has sent investigative subpoenas to environmental advocacy organizations — something the groups are describing as a retaliatory attack on their First Amendment rights."
