Create Custom Environmental Maps with National Atlas

November 10, 2010–Dial up just one layer of data, or add layer after layer (from scores of topics) to create your own concoction of interlinked factors. The zoom function allows you to narrow or enlarge your geographic coverage as you see fit.

Disease-Tracking Tool May Help Both People and Wildlife

November 10, 2010–This growing database may help you identify emerging problems and patterns, and supplement what government and university personnel can track.

EPA Gives Public an Environmental Justice Mapping Tool: EJView

November 3, 2010–This new tool allows any user online to create custom study areas based on a wide range of variables: address, ZIP code, county, city, township, facility, watershed, or geographic coordinates. Other environmental data can then be mapped onto that study area.

Peak Water: A New Way To Look at Long-Term Water Issues

October 27, 2010–Viewing local, regional, national, and global water issues through the lens of "peak water," a concept explained in a Pacific Institute paper, can yield some interesting angles on water-related stories and long-term water issues.

Calif. Climate Ballot Fight: National Ripple Effects Either Way

September 29, 2010–If Proposition 23 passes, it could disrupt plans for many green companies and their suppliers in CA and around the US — not to mention weakening political will in other states, or at the federal level, for tougher green energy policy.

Cities Attack Climate Change, One Kilowatt at a Time

September 29, 2010–The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (Canada, US, and Mexico) issued a report on Sept. 17, 2010, illustrating the steps 13 North American cities are taking, from small, planned efforts to reduce building energy use, to comprehensive, multi-sector adopted plans for reducing energy use.

Improved Tsunami Warning System Still Needs Work

September 29, 2010–A National Research Council report says one of the most significant problems is a continuing lack of communication between federal tsunami warning system officials; local officials and emergency managers; the media; and the public.

EPA Enviro Justice Guidance Could Help Spotlight EJ Issues

August 18, 2010–While thoroughly bureaucratic, the 55-page guidance document, as well as EPA's Environmental Justice Strategic Enforcement Assessment Tool, can be useful resources for reporters who seek to understand and highlight potential environmental justice issues unfolding at the national, regional, or state level.

Studies: Lighten Up on Roof and Pavement Color

August 4, 2010–While not a stand-alone climate change-fighting measure, converting roofs and pavements in tropical and temperate cities of one million or more people to light-colored materials would provide the equivalent one-time benefit of eliminating two years' worth of global CO2 emissions, or eliminating the emissions of 300 million vehicles for 20 years.

Extreme Heat Events Worse in Sprawling Cities

July 7, 2010–A study was published in Environmental Health Perspectives found that the most sprawling US cities have 2.6 times the risk of deadly extreme heat events than those with the least sprawl — regardless of the population, location, or rate of growth of an urban area.