Health

For a clean energy transition to succeed, it almost certainly will have to bring along displaced workers and communities. To help journalists understand the challenges underlying that shift, BookShelf’s Jenny Weeks reviews two volumes. The first is a new memoir of working in North Dakota’s booming Bakken oil fields, the second an earlier account of decline in a working-class community in Oregon.

An unusual student journalist, moonlighting in between his Ph.D. training as a clinical psychologist, turned an interest in the ways nature can heal into an award-winning story for a prominent magazine, and in the process helped prompt skyrocketing interest among mainstream physicians in “prescribing nature.” Aaron Reuben shares his experience in the new EJ Academy.

Long overlooked or misunderstood outside of the communities they affected, issues of environmental equity are now increasingly the focus of both government action and journalistic digging. A recent webinar from the Society of Environmental Journalists explored new developments with this many-layered challenge and offered advice on how it can be better covered. Webinar moderator and reporter Perla Trevizo has a rundown.

Climate change can mean doubling down on disasters, such as a combination of widespread power outages with the kind of extreme heat that kills. The latest TipSheet explores why such simultaneous disasters are so dangerous, where they’ve happened already, why they are increasingly likely to happen again and how to prepare to cover them in your area.

While a “Handbook of Environmental Journalism” might initially sound like a scholarly work on environmental journalism, our BookShelf reviewer finds that the volume reads more like an engaging assembly of accessible accounts on the profession from colleagues across the planet. That makes it a rich resource for working journalists ... and anyone else with a passing interest in environmental issues and how they’re covered.

Pittsburgh is known for its history of steel production … and of air pollution. In the new Inside Story, reporter Kristina Marusic talks about capturing the health impacts of air emissions in western Pennsylvania, and shares insights on how dogged environmental justice reporting can make the links between pollution cuts and health impacts. Plus, tips on managing a long reporting project, creating infographics and using video.