SEJournal Spring 2012, Vol. 22 No. 1

April 15, 2012–In this issue: Getting into the (Clean Water) Act; SEJ's grant program has real impact on reporting; indie enviro films at Sundance; election year buzzwords; sneak preview of SEJ's 2012 conference, Lubbock, Texas; web tool DocumentCloud brings documents to life; ex-CNN executive producer Dykstra returns to journalism; meteorologists as environmental journalists; SEJ members honored, produce videos, win awards and grants; and 5 book reviews! (Why wait 3 months for access to each quarterly issue? Get your Summer/Fall issue now: how to join or subscribe.)

Are Data Behind Companies' Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trade Secrets?

April 4, 2012–EPA's upcoming rulings on confidentiality for data going into the companies' GHG calculations will be important. Those determinations may impact whether companies' reporting is accurate — and whether they can ever be held accountable for their emissions.

Integrity Problems at Interior's Science Integrity Program?

April 4, 2012–One sign of problems came when Interior's Inspector General office launched what seemed to be a ham-handed investigation, later dropped, into activities of the scientist who sounded the alarm on polar bears losing habitat to global warming. Now Interior has fired one of its scientific integrity officers — who is defending himself by saying he was just doing his job.

Va. Supreme Court Denies Cuccinelli Access to Climate Scientist Emails

March 7, 2012–Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R, pictured at left), who avows himself a global warming skeptic, had sought from the University of Virginia grant applications by former U.Va. climate scientist Michael Mann, creator of the "hockey stick" graph, and emails between Mann and other scientists.

Reporters, Researchers at AAAS Say Canada Muzzles Climate Scientists

February 22, 2012–The complaints came out at the Vancouver meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) this month — the main multidisciplinary science conference held yearly on the continent. Also during the meeting, a letter from six journalism and science groups called on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to end the muzzling-scientists policy was released.

USFS Offers Climate Change Bird Atlas

February 15, 2012–The atlas — a database actually — is based partly on climate-related changes in tree cover. It maps out current distribution of 147 species and modeled distribution resulting from climate change.

New US Strategy for Coping with Climate Change Open for Comment

February 1, 2012–NOAA, the USFWS, and the NY State Dept. of Environmental Conservation (representing all state and wildlife agencies) released on Jan. 19, 2012, a draft of the first national strategy for responding to climate change effects on plants, fish and wildlife. The public comment period is open until March 5, 2012, and public meetings and a webinar will occur until Feb. 22, 2012.

New USDA Plant Hardiness Map Reflects Changing US Climate

February 1, 2012–Finally, after numerous delays amid allegations of political interference by people who don't want to see documented evidence of climate shifts, the wait is over. The new detailed interactive map is based on data from 1976-2005, and is the first official revision since the 1990 update.

Talks Delay Rules for Power Plant, Refinery GHG Limits

February 1, 2012–One day, EPA may propose rules for regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and petroleum refineries. But the process continues to drag out, with the consent of the state and local governments and environmental advocacy groups that have been litigating for about five years to make the agency take action.

2012 Snow Cover Starting Out Very Low

January 18, 2012–Snow cover has many implications, from ski resorts short on snow and farmers who rely on snowmelt for irrigation to firefighters and residents battling major fires in unusual locations in the middle of winter and smothering blizzards in areas at the other end of the extreme snow spectrum this year.