Publication Items

As Realty Risk Data Is Pulled From Web, Alternatives Are Ready [1]

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.

SEJ Publication Types:
Reporters Toolbox [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [3]
Consumer [4]
Disasters [5]
Journalism & Media [6]
Planning & Growth [7]
Region:
National (U.S.) [8]
Visibility:
Public [9]
- Read more about As Realty Risk Data Is Pulled From Web, Alternatives Are Ready [1]
Data Centers — A Local Drain on Power and Water, Coming to a Community Near You [10]

Thousands of energy-hungry, water-gulping data centers are helping fuel the artificial intelligence boom in the United States (and elsewhere). The latest TipSheet takes a closer look at this escalating phenomenon and encourages environmental journalists to look into how it may be playing out in their communities. Ten story ideas and reporting resources to cover data centers’ local impact.

SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [11]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [12]
Infrastructure [13]
Journalism & Media [6]
Planning & Growth [7]
Policy [14]
Pollution [15]
Water & Oceans [16]
Region:
National (U.S.) [8]
International [17]
Visibility:
Public [9]
- Read more about Data Centers — A Local Drain on Power and Water, Coming to a Community Near You [10]
Queer Ecology — A Powerful Lens for Reporting on Environmental Injustice [18]

Queer ecology is an evolving field that challenges traditional assumptions in science and explores LGBTQ+ experiences in an ecological context. It’s easy to catch your audience’s attention with stories about transitioning clownfish or same-sex albatross parenting. But as contributor Isaias Hernandez explains, queer ecology also offers journalists an important perspective for covering a range of environmental issues, from climate risk to pollution exposure, and reimagining environmental narratives.

SEJ Publication Types:
Features [19]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [20]
Agriculture [21]
Air [22]
Biodiversity [23]
Climate Change [3]
Disasters [5]
Diversity [24]
Environmental Health [25]
Environmental Justice [26]
Environmental Politics [27]
Environmental Studies [28]
Health [29]
Journalism & Media [6]
People & Population [30]
Planning & Growth [7]
Science [31]
Wildlife [32]
Region:
National (U.S.) [8]
International [17]
Visibility:
Public [9]
- Read more about Queer Ecology — A Powerful Lens for Reporting on Environmental Injustice [18]
Tapping Into COP30 To Cover Indigenous Issues [33]

COP30 negotiators from around the world gather next week in Belém, Brazil, at the mouth of the Amazon River. Our Voices of Environmental Justice columnist Yessenia Funes says it’s a vital opportunity to engage with the Indigenous peoples who help protect the vast rainforest region — even for environmental reporters not there in person. Here’s how to tell their stories.

SEJ Publication Types:
Voices of Environmental Justice [34]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [21]
Biodiversity [23]
Climate Change [3]
Economy & Business [35]
Energy & Fuel [12]
Environmental Health [25]
Environmental Justice [26]
Environmental Politics [27]
Forests [36]
Government [37]
Journalism & Media [6]
Natural Resources [38]
People & Population [30]
Planning & Growth [7]
Policy [14]
Pollution [15]
Water & Oceans [16]
Region:
International [17]
South America [39]
Visibility:
Public [9]
- Read more about Tapping Into COP30 To Cover Indigenous Issues [33]
Climate Solutions, for Some, May Not Be [40]

A small Louisiana community, home to the descendants of formerly enslaved Black people, continues to fight for its freedom many decades later, this time from a potentially polluting technology. FEJ StoryLog contributor Yessenia Funes recounts her journey to this Cancer Alley community, where a grant from the Fund for Environmental Journalism helped her tell the story of residents challenging a multibillion-dollar carbon capture plant.

SEJ Publication Types:
FEJ StoryLog [41]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [20]
Air [22]
Chemicals [42]
Climate Change [3]
Economy & Business [35]
Energy & Fuel [12]
Environmental Health [25]
Environmental Justice [26]
Environmental Politics [27]
Journalism & Media [6]
People & Population [30]
Planning & Growth [7]
Policy [14]
Pollution [15]
Science [31]
Technology [43]
Region:
National (U.S.) [8]
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [44]
Visibility:
Public [9]
- Read more about Climate Solutions, for Some, May Not Be [40]
Walkability Index Helps Journalists Highlight Planning Issues [45]

Many local government decisions come down to a key factor: walkability. And that’s not just a question of transportation infrastructure. As the latest Reporter’s Toolbox notes, walkability is also an environmental consideration. To turn that simple truth into stories about the built environment, here’s a high-quality, mappable walkability index. How to use the database smartly, plus questions to ask that will get your reporting started.

SEJ Publication Types:
Reporters Toolbox [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [3]
Environmental Politics [27]
Government [37]
Infrastructure [13]
Journalism & Media [6]
People & Population [30]
Planning & Growth [7]
Policy [14]
Transportation [46]
Region:
National (U.S.) [8]
Visibility:
Public [9]
- Read more about Walkability Index Helps Journalists Highlight Planning Issues [45]
Trump Climate Science Denial Hinges on … Not Saying the Word [47]

A war on the facts behind climate change — and on the actions to address it — is well underway in the second Trump administration. The new WatchDog Opinion column takes the measure of the battlefront, eyeing key examples of the political onslaught, including a concerted effort to eradicate the very term itself. Regulations killed, research discredited, speech censored and more.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog [48]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [3]
Energy & Fuel [12]
Environmental Justice [26]
Environmental Politics [27]
Environmental Studies [28]
Government [37]
Journalism & Media [6]
Laws & Regulations [49]
Planning & Growth [7]
Policy [14]
Science [31]
Region:
National (U.S.) [8]
Visibility:
Public [9]
- Read more about Trump Climate Science Denial Hinges on … Not Saying the Word [47]
Solutions — and Death — in the Rainforest [50]

A project begun to explore ways to protect the Amazon seemed to end with the murder of the journalist who conceived it, along with his guide and research partner. But others picked up the mantle and completed a volume exploring ways to save this precious and rapidly disappearing ecosystem. BookShelf reviewer Elyse Hauser on how this unusual book tries to meet that promise.

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [51]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [21]
Biodiversity [23]
Environmental Health [25]
Environmental Politics [27]
Forests [36]
Journalism & Media [6]
Natural Resources [38]
Planning & Growth [7]
Region:
International [17]
South America [39]
Visibility:
Public [9]
- Read more about Solutions — and Death — in the Rainforest [50]
Wildfire Smoke Is Showing Up Everywhere. It Can Be Fatal [52]

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 [53]
Topics on the Beat:
Planning & Growth [7]
Policy [14]
Pollution [15]
Region:
National (U.S.) [8]
California [54]
Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI) [55]
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [56]
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [57]
International [17]
Canada [58]
Visibility:
Public [9]
- Read more about Wildfire Smoke Is Showing Up Everywhere. It Can Be Fatal [52]
Life on Mars and Other Space Oddities [59]

When an ecologist and a cartoonist team up to explore the realities of colonizing Mars, the result is a humorous and highly informative book on whether humans are truly up to settling space. They detour into the intimacies of zero-gravity intimacy and the challenges of ensuring a food supply. From BookShelf contributing editor Melody Kemp, a review of “A City on Mars.”

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [51]
Topics on the Beat:
Planning & Growth [7]
Science [31]
Technology [43]
Transportation [46]
Region:
National (U.S.) [8]
International [17]
Visibility:
Public [9]
- Read more about Life on Mars and Other Space Oddities [59]

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