John Platt, author of Scientific American's Extinction Countdown blog, offers up a great list of things that may help environmental journalists illuminate some of the issues in question as the Act prepares for its second 40 years. Photo: A California condor outfitted with tracking tags, courtesy USFWS.

More than one observer has compared covering energy to the folk tale about the blind men who try to describe an elephant, and end up shouting at each other because they’ve each grasped a different part of the beast and believe their portion represents the whole thing. Freelancer Jennifer Weeks reports.

Francesca Lyman asks "What does Hurricane Sandy tell us about coping with human health and consequences of climate change?"

Bud Ward, editor of The Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media, writes about the ways for these two disciplines to get along and learn from each other — while preserving their own independence and remaining loyal to their underlying principles.

The answer is Yes. No. Maybe … and it depends.

InvestigateWest's Robert McClure gets into the (clean water) act by asking, "Four decades later, is our water cleaner?" You'll find shocking answers and a flood of ways to localize this issue.

Here's a sampling of coverage of recent extreme weather disasters, with particular focus on a few of the many enterprise stories that emanated from four clusters of events — the tsunami-caused crisis at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, drought and wildfires in Texas, death-dealing tornadoes in the Southeast and massive flooding in the Mississippi River system.

Miami-based radio news director Dan Grech recounts his journey covering the traumatic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, becoming homeless thanks to Hurricane Wilma, his subsequent training on trauma reporting, and shares his lessons learned with you.

Everything from the social media’s importance to the need for a detailed disaster plan — Robert A. Thomas, professor and director of the Center for Environmental Communication, School of Mass Communication at Loyola University in New Orleans, outlines 17 take-away lessons for journalists.

Reporters new to the climate change issue and those having to immerse themselves into it while also grappling with a range of other important environmental (and, given the nature of today’s newsrooms, also non-environmental) issues might try these "must see" resources and websites.