Publication Items

Wildfire Smoke Is Showing Up Everywhere. It Can Be Fatal [1]

Wildfire’s immensely destructive power is not just about what it burns. The smoke from more frequent fires, too, has real potential to harm human health, the new Backgrounder explains, releasing particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides and worse. Learn more about the hazards and historical perspective, along with what journalists should tell their communities can be done.

SEJ Publication Types:
Backgrounders [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Planning & Growth [3]
Policy [4]
Pollution [5]
Region:
National (U.S.) [6]
California [7]
Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI) [8]
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [9]
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [10]
International [11]
Canada [12]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about Wildfire Smoke Is Showing Up Everywhere. It Can Be Fatal [1]
Rethinking Forest Management in the Pyrocene [14]

Recent urban-interface infernos, fueled by climate change, leave no doubt that we have entered the age of runaway fire. Writer and ecologist Lauren Oakes writes that large-scale combustion is permanently reshaping ecosystems and societies as we learn to live with wildfire, not just fight it. Instead of perpetuating problematic approaches to forest management, experts call for confronting the root causes of this crisis and adopting science-informed responses.

SEJ Publication Types:
Features [15]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [16]
Disasters [17]
Environmental Politics [18]
Environmental Studies [19]
Forests [20]
Government [21]
Health [22]
Infrastructure [23]
Journalism & Media [24]
Laws & Regulations [25]
Natural Resources [26]
Policy [4]
Region:
National (U.S.) [6]
California [7]
Northwest (OR WA) [27]
International [11]
Canada [12]
Australia & Oceania [28]
Europe [29]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about Rethinking Forest Management in the Pyrocene [14]
Lead Pipe Data Map Offers Sharp New Tool [30]

Lead-contaminated drinking water has long been a widespread worry, but one big challenge has been locating the many lead service lines around the United States. The latest Reporter’s Toolbox points you to a mappable database to help address that problem, with current, detailed data filtered through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Learn more about this resource and how to best use it.

SEJ Publication Types:
Reporters Toolbox [31]
Topics on the Beat:
Consumer [32]
Environmental Politics [18]
Health [22]
Infrastructure [23]
Journalism & Media [24]
Laws & Regulations [25]
Policy [4]
Pollution [5]
Water & Oceans [33]
Region:
National (U.S.) [6]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about Lead Pipe Data Map Offers Sharp New Tool [30]
Public Broadcasting Cuts Would Harm Free Press [34]

Trump administration efforts to defund public media, now before Congress, are a misguided effort to harm a source of journalism that is highly trusted by audiences, argues the latest WatchDog Opinion column. And while public broadcasting’s diverse funding sources may insulate it from politics to some degree, the attacks do threaten to chill press freedom, including environmental reporting, more broadly. The latest Dog explains.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog [35]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [21]
Journalism & Media [24]
Laws & Regulations [25]
Policy [4]
Region:
National (U.S.) [6]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about Public Broadcasting Cuts Would Harm Free Press [34]
National Park Story No Walk in the Park, Post-Budget Cuts [36]

Steep cuts for the U.S. National Park System look likely from the Trump administration, affecting visitors, roiling local businesses and raising political hackles. For environmental journalists, budgets slashed for hundreds of park units could also turn a summer standby story into something closer to disaster coverage. TipSheet has more than a dozen story ideas and reporting resources to cover the park nearest you.

SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [37]
Topics on the Beat:
Consumer [32]
Environmental Politics [18]
Forests [20]
Government [21]
Journalism & Media [24]
Policy [4]
Region:
National (U.S.) [6]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about National Park Story No Walk in the Park, Post-Budget Cuts [36]
Will DOGE Evaporate Crucial Water Data? [38]

Streamflow data gathered by thousands of U.S. Geological Survey gauges helps track the country’s floods and droughts. But it may be lost if the Trump administration follows up on a decision not to renew leases of USGS water science centers that read the gauges and disseminate the measurements. Reporter’s Toolbox on the value of this database and the risk of its loss.

SEJ Publication Types:
Reporters Toolbox [31]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [39]
Climate Change [16]
Disasters [17]
Environmental Politics [18]
Environmental Studies [19]
Government [21]
Natural Resources [26]
Policy [4]
Science [40]
Water & Oceans [33]
Region:
National (U.S.) [6]
California [7]
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [41]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [42]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about Will DOGE Evaporate Crucial Water Data? [38]
Analysis: Trump Administration Attacks Science, As Environment Suffers [43]

It’s not just scientists who are being lost to the new administration’s extensive firings of federal workers. A Backgrounder Analysis argues it’s the science itself. It’s happening at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but also across agencies that conduct research to protect health and the environment, whether around toxic chemicals or on the battleground of climate change science. A frank look at the reality and what’s being lost for journalists and the communities they serve.

SEJ Publication Types:
Backgrounders [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [44]
Climate Change [16]
Economy & Business [45]
Environmental Politics [18]
Environmental Studies [19]
Government [21]
Health [22]
Journalism & Media [24]
Laws & Regulations [25]
Policy [4]
Science [40]
Region:
National (U.S.) [6]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about Analysis: Trump Administration Attacks Science, As Environment Suffers [43]
In West Bank, Hope for Future in Link Between Land and People [46]

On a tour of the West Bank this spring, Yessenia Funes found a region where the relationship between land and people serves as a counterweight to occupation and the threat of violence. For her Voices of Environmental Justice column, Funes exhorts fellow environment journalists to report on that struggle, through stories that touch on wildlife, wildfire, food, climate and more.

SEJ Publication Types:
Voices of Environmental Justice [47]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [39]
Climate Change [16]
Environmental Justice [48]
Environmental Politics [18]
Food [49]
Government [21]
Journalism & Media [24]
Military [50]
People & Population [51]
Policy [4]
Water & Oceans [33]
Region:
International [11]
Middle East [52]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about In West Bank, Hope for Future in Link Between Land and People [46]
Mapping Out Local PFAS Risk, As Federal Rules Waver [53]

As the Trump administration rolls back Biden-era rules limiting the presence of “forever chemicals” in drinking water, an updated data mapping tool helps pinpoint local angles on the PFAS story. The latest TipSheet outlines the basics on this class of widely used chemicals, their risks to humans and the challenges of regulating them, plus provides a half-dozen story ideas and questions to ask.

SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [37]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [44]
Consumer [32]
Health [22]
Journalism & Media [24]
Laws & Regulations [25]
Policy [4]
Pollution [5]
Science [40]
Water & Oceans [33]
Region:
National (U.S.) [6]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about Mapping Out Local PFAS Risk, As Federal Rules Waver [53]
Trump Pursues Broad Attack on Press Freedom [54]

In case you haven’t been keeping track, Donald Trump has been engaging in a multifront offensive against the news media and press freedom more generally. WatchDog Opinion catalogs the transgressions to illustrate how the president is moving to grasp control of White House pool coverage, beguile rich media owners, politicize libel law, kneecap public media and weaponize regulatory agencies.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog [35]
Topics on the Beat:
Economy & Business [45]
Government [21]
Journalism & Media [24]
Laws & Regulations [25]
Policy [4]
Region:
National (U.S.) [6]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about Trump Pursues Broad Attack on Press Freedom [54]

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