Selected past regional events from 2008 and earlier are archived here, on SEJ's old site.
 

Access Denied: Science News and Government Transparency
October 3, 2011

Has the Obama administration lived up to its promise to make science more transparent and accessible to the public? An investigation in the current issue of Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) finds that despite President Obama’s early promise to create an open government, the nation’s science reporters feel there has been little to no progress since the Bush administration.

On Oct. 3, from 3 to 5 p.m., the National Press Club (529 14th Street NW, Washington, D.C) hosted a panel of journalists and invited administration officials to critique what journalists and the government are (or aren’t) doing to change that. The event was also livestreamed.

Moderator: Seth Borenstein, Reporter, The Associated Press

Speakers included:

• Curtis Brainard, CJR science editor
• Joseph Davis, Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ)
• Felice Freyer, Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ)
• Clothilde Le Coz, Reporters Without Borders energy and environment reporter
• Darren Samuelsohn, Politico’s senior energy and environment reporter
• Nancy Shute, National Association of Science Writers

Representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy were invited. None participated.

The panel discussion was co-sponsored by the National Press Club, CJR, SEJ, and Reporters Without Borders.

• Watch NPC's video of the event on YouTube (2:03:20).
• "Obama Administration not delivering on its promise of open government, journalists say," National Press Club, October 4, 2011, by John Hughes.
• "Government obstructing access to science data, panel says," News Media Update, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, October 4, 2011, by Kirsten Berg.
• "Science News and Government Transparency," October 4, 2011, Storified by Pia Christensen of the Association of Health Care Journalists.
• "An Empty Seat: Government fails to show for science news, transparency event," The Observatory, Columbia Journalism Review, October 12, 2011, by Curtis Brainard.

SEJ Toronto Pub Night Series 2011
 

SEJ Pub Nights take place the first Tuesday of the month, September through April, usually in the upstairs bar at Harbord House in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Each month we invite a guest speaker for a brief, informal conversation about an area of interest, and we're in the process of lining up some great ones for the year ahead. We welcome journalists who cover environmental issues, or who wish to, as well as journalism students, academics, and other interested parties. The goal is to get some useful information and having ample opportunity to chat about environmental journalism amongst ourselves. See upcoming speakers. See 2010 speakers. See 2009 speakers.

September 6, 2011: Pete Wobschall, executive director of Hamilton-Wentworth Green Venture.

April 5, 2011: Jim Stanford, economist with the CAW and author of Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism.

March 5, 2011: Ravenna Alnuaimy-Barker, executive director of Sustain Ontario.

February 1, 2011: John Eyles, geography professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Prof. Eyles' research has included environment and health phenomena, and "the geography of everyday life."

Environment 101 for Freelancers
April 14, 2011
 

SEJ and the Professional Writers’ Association of Canada presented a panel at the University of Toronto, moderated by freelance journalist Saul Chernos. Experienced journalists from both the reporting and the editing sides of the business discussed strategies the country’s top environmentally-minded writers are using to tell and sell their stories. Panelists included Victoria Foote, director of communications for Ontario Nature; independent journalist Stephen Leahy; and Sharon Oosthoek, a Toronto-based freelance science and environmental journalist.

Oil Spill Film & Panel Discussion
University of California, Santa Barbara
January 28, 2011
 

The Society of Environmental Journalists, in conjunction with the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UCSB and the Carsey-Wolf Center at UCSB, presented a public event:

"The Spills: Mixing Oil and Water," a public film screening and panel discussion on the evening of Friday, January 28, 2011, at the Pollock Theater, UC Santa Barbara.

Marking the 42nd anniversary of the Santa Barbara oil spill, leading members of the Society of Environmental Journalists joined scientists from UC Santa Barbara and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to discuss the societal and ecological impacts of major spills that have fouled the California, Alaska and Gulf coasts. Significant oil and gas reserves lie off U.S. coastlines, but tapping them means drilling deeper in colder, rougher waters. In that context, panelists reviewed the past and provided glimpses of the possible future.

The event opened with a screening of "The Spill," a joint investigation by FRONTLINE and ProPublica into the trail of problems — deadly accidents, disastrous spills, countless safety violations — that had long troubled oil giant BP prior to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. After the film, Bren School dean Steve Gaines and NBC Miami reporter Jeff Burnside co-moderated a panel discussion that included the following participants:

• Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica journalist and one of two journalists who reported for The Spill
• Robert Gramling, professor of sociology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; author of Blowout in the Gulf: The BP Oil Spill Disaster and the Future of Energy in America
• David L. Valentine, professor of microbial geochemistry, UC Santa Barbara, who spent six weeks on the Gulf coast in the aftermath of the spill
• Bettina Boxall, environmental reporter for the Los Angeles Times
• Jim Detjen, Director, the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, Michigan State University

SEJ Toronto Pub Night Series 2010
 

SEJ Pub Nights take place the first Tuesday of every month, September through April, in the upstairs bar at Harbord House in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Each month we invite a guest speaker for a brief, informal conversation about an area of interest, and we're in the process of lining up some great ones for the year ahead. We welcome journalists who cover environmental issues, or who wish to, as well as journalism students, academics, and other interested parties. The goal is to get some useful information and having ample opportunity to chat about environmental journalism amongst ourselves. See upcoming speakers. See 2009 speakers.

December 7, 2010: Shelagh Grant, Trent University history professor and author of Polar Imperative: A History of Arctic Sovereignty in North America.

November 2, 2010: Alanna Mitchell, long-time Globe science writer and winner of the Grantham Prize for her recent book, Sea Sick: The Hidden Crisis in the Global Ocean.

September and October, 2010: No guest. Informal gatherings.

April 6, 2010: Sarah Elton, Toronto journalist, CBC radio foodie and author of Locavore: From Farmers' Fields to Rooftop Gardens — How Canadians Are Changing the Way We Eat (HarperCollins, 2010).

March 2, 2010: Steven Peck, president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities.

February 2, 2010: Jamie Benidickson, University of Ottawa law professor and author of The Culture of Flushing: A Social and Legal History of Sewage (UBC Press, 2007).

Climate and Sustainability: Moving by Degrees
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
 

Presented by Marketplace and The Gary Comer Global Agenda, The Kendeda Fund and the Society of Environmental Journalists.

Climate and Sustainability: Moving by Degrees was a national, interactive, day-long symposium that brought the nation's top scientists, policymakers and business leaders together with reporters from public radio and commercial stations from around the nation.

 Participants included:

• Dr. Michael E. Mann, Pennsylvania State University
• Dr. Benjamin Santer, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Review
• Andrew Revkin, award-winning New York Times Dot Earth blogger
• Joe Romm, Center for American Progress and ClimateProgress.org blogger
• Dr. Stephen Schneider, Stanford University
• Elizabeth Kolbert, award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker

This online event was aimed at bringing together journalists and the public online and at Southern California Public Radio's (SCPR) Crawford Family Forum to decipher fact from fiction, to learn how our scientific understanding has evolved, and to understand where politics, science and business agree and diverge on how to create a sustainable future. Watch archive video from the day-long symposium. 

Agriculture and Food Security in 2050
January 22, 2010
 

A public event co-sponsored by the Society of Environmental Journalists and Texas Tech University Institute of Environmental and Human Health.

Texas Tech University scientists and environmental journalists explored some of the daunting environmental challenges farmers in West Texas face on the evening of Friday, January 22, 2010, in the Texas Tech University's Hall of Nations, International Cultural Center, 601 Indiana Avenue, Lubbock, Texas.

Climate change impacts, water supply and quality, and pesticides/chemicals were among the topics discussed at the event.

Dallas Morning News reporter Randy Lee Loftis moderated the discussion.

Texas Tech University representatives on the panel:

• John Zak, Associate Dean of Research for Arts and Science
• John Burns, Dean of Agriculture
• Ron Kendall, Director and Chair of the Institute of Environmental and Human Health

Journalists on the panel:

• Rob Davis, Voice of San Diego
• Douglas Fischer, DailyClimate.org
• Cheryl Hogue, Chemical & Engineering News

Covering Climate: What's Population Got to Do With It?
October 14, 2009
 

Co-sponsored by Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' Environmental Change and Security Program, Society of Environmental Journalists, and the International Reporting Project.

Dennis Dimick, executive editor of National Geographic Magazine; Emily Douglas, web editor of The Nation; and Andrew Revkin, environmental reporter with The New York Times, offer ideas and best practices for stories on population-climate links.

• Session information and video (1hr:54:27).

SEJ Toronto Pub Night Series 2009
 

SEJ Pub Nights take place the first Tuesday of every month, in the upstairs bar at Harbord House, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Each month we invite a guest speaker for a brief, informal conversation about an area of interest, and we're in the process of lining up some great ones for the year ahead. We welcome journalists who cover environmental issues, or who wish to, as well as journalism students, academics, and other interested parties. The goal is to get some useful information and having ample opportunity to chat about environmental journalism amongst ourselves.

December 1, 2009: Gideon Forman, executive director of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. Gideon has a long history in the Ontario environmental movement, with some very notable work on getting municipalities to ban cosmetic pesticides.

November 3, 2009: Bill Kovarik, a Radford University journalism professor and SEJ board member. Kovarik is spending a year in London, where he's teaching Environmental Journalism in the graduate journalism program at the University of Western Ontario.

October 6, 2009: Thomas Pawlick. A veteran journalist and former Harrowsmith editor, Pawlick has won a National Magazine Award and three CSWA awards for his work. He discussed his new book, The War in the Country: How the Fight To Save Rural Life Will Shape Our Future.

September 1, 2009: Stephen Boles, founder of Kuzuka.com, a new company that is doing for the retail carbon credit market roughly what Expedia did for air travel. He's spent the last couple years plunging into the carbon markets and studying the standards. He's also a GIS expert whose other company primarily serves Canadian vineyards. Before that, he worked at the Institute for Earth, Oceans and Space at the University of New Hampshire, studying the effects of land use on greenhouse gas emissions.

August 4, 2009: No speaker. Participants relaxed and chatted about what we'd like to see happen in the next year or two.

May 5, 2009: Ravenna Barker, an urban agriculturalist with Foodshare Toronto.

April 7, 2009: Cara Sloat, a professional engineer and designer with Cobalt Engineering. Cara is a green building specialist whose project experience ranges from single off-grid houses to shopping centres and office towers. T'was a great night for those who write about real estate, environmental design or retail.

March 3, 2009: Jane Story, Manager, Policy & Communications, Ontario Sustainable Energy Association. Hot on the heels of Ontario's Green Energy Act announcement comes an opportunity to explore the background informally with one of the proponents. Jane has been involved in environmental issues for many years, first as a reporter for NOW Magazine in the early 80's and more recently as communications officer for Greenpeace Canada and WWF Indochina. She also has extensive experience working with indigenous people in Canada, where she established a communication office for the United Chiefs and Councils of Manitoulin, and overseas, working in Papua New Guinea, Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia, Palestine and the Solomon Islands, where she was employed by the United Nations Development Program. Jane earned her Hon. B.A. in English from the University of Guelph and studied photography at the Polytechnic of Central London (England).