"Water Woes: Regional Papers Turn Out Series on Sea Level, Drought"

"Two newspapers produced excellent series in August that scrutinized climate crises related to having too little water, and too much, in their respective regions. The Kansas City Star took on the toll of the severe drought afflicting the Great Plains, while The News Journal in Wilmington, DE, examined impacts of sea-level rise in the Mid-Atlantic. The series share many admirable characteristics. In fact, both opened with the same characterization of a creeping but inexorable dilemma."



"Where the Star described lake and stream levels dropping 'week by week and foot by foot,' the New Journal told of the ocean pushing in 'inch by inch' and year by year. Both reports placed the phenomena clearly within the context of man-made climate change, describing how global warming has accelerated sea-level rise and created the conditions that make drought more likely. Appropriately, though, the series didn’t dwell too long on abstract science."

Curtis Brainard reports for Columbia Journalism Review's The Observatory blog August 30, 2012.

Source: Columbia Journalism Review, 08/31/2012