When it comes to tracking weather phenomena from heat waves and tornadoes to wildfire smoke or storm surge, environmental journalists could hardly do better than the vast array of data from the National Weather Service, writes the latest Reporter’s Toolbox. A tour of data maps and viewers, forecasts and weather insights from the large scale to the local.
Emissions of the global warming gas methane are widely tracked through satellite sensors, despite some unexpected bumps in the data-gathering effort. But a big challenge is how to interpret and use the resulting insights in your coverage. The latest Reporter’s Toolbox points out several important methane datasets and offers useful insights into how to turn them into stories.
If drinking water safety is on your beat, then keeping track of seesawing regulations around PFAS is a challenge. But as Reporter’s Toolbox writes, a powerful government data mapping tool can help you at least locate nearby PFAS facilities at a glance. What it does well and where it sources its underlying data, plus some suggestions on using it for your reporting.
The capacity to visualize Earth’s ecosystems in detail is an invaluable aid to reporting on the environment. That’s now being bolstered with an ongoing upgrade to NASA’s Earthdata program, fueled by its ranks of satellites. Reporter’s Toolbox says the refurbishment offers treasures for journalists ranging from oceans, groundwater and land surfaces to the biosphere and atmosphere.
Communities surrounded by forest can be a beautiful place to live … or a wildfire trap. Environmental journalists can readily map and identify these so-called wildland urban interfaces through a federal government resource, writes the latest Reporter’s Toolbox. More on this data mapping tool and how to use it to track your area’s risk, explore historical trends and layer other data.
Want to pinpoint all the facilities regulated by the EPA in your ZIP code? Or scope out every U.S. operation owned by a particular industrial company? Or learn which polluter might be facing fewer enforcement actions under the current administration? Reporter’s Toolbox has a database for you — in effect, a master index to potential polluters.
They’re a carbon sink, a playground and a major market, but also a source of smoke pollution and pest infestation. Millions of acres of Canadian forest are a big North American story, and the latest Reporter’s Toolbox points you to a central data source that can help quantify, analyze and visualize the numbers and see the proverbial forest for the trees.
Even though the United States suffers multiple billion-dollar climate change-related catastrophes, the federal government has ceased sharing the data publicly. And it’s far from the only example of environmental data being blacked out, notes the latest Reporter’s Toolbox. But at least in some cases, civil society organizations have rescued the information and put it back online. See what’s still available.
Hundreds of thousands of polluted, abandoned industrial sites — called brownfields — dot the United States. For reporters seeking local environmental stories, this profusion of problem spots cries out for coverage. The latest Reporter’s Toolbox points you to a series of government databases that track them and let you map them, but warns that the going won’t be easy. Find out why.
As one data source disappears, another often emerges, finds Reporter’s Toolbox, as it searches for ways to report on real estate risk. In our latest column, insight into where to find information on home hazards, especially from climate change, plus smart ways to use the data for your reporting and some emerging gaps to be aware of.
