In April of 1963, Charles Wurster anda small group of fellow scientists decidedthey would monitor a planned DDTspraying in Hanover, N.H. They hadn’tread Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” published the year before; norhad they looked at much of the scientific literature.“We were unbiased and empty-headed,” Wurster recalls in acompelling new memoir, “DDT Wars,” about the early days of theEnvironmental Defense Fund and the fight to ban most uses of persistentorganic pollutants such as DDT.With a Ph.D.
Rarely does a writer get so deeply into the heart of his or her subject while also avoiding the pitfalls of sentimentality. So began the judges’ comments for “Untamed: The Wildest Woman in America and the Fight for Cumberland Island,” winner of SEJ’s 2015 Rachel Carson Environment Book Award. The book’s author, Will Harlan, spent 19 years developing a bold, unflinching portrayal of Cumberland Island, Ga.’s most ardent defender, the brilliant-yet-eccentric Carol Ruckdeschel. For the latest edition of SEJournal’s Between the Lines author Q & A, Harlan spoke with our book editor, Tom Henry.
Journalist and author Angela Posada-Swafford shares the ups and downs of her two-decades-long (so far) freelance life based in Florida.
Although you, as a taxpayer, pay for reports by the Congressional Research Service, Congress does not allow you to read them. Fortunately, somebody leaked these reports of interest to environmental journalists.
Because it is digital, the Atlas can be overlaid with many kinds of information: data on abandoned mines, coalfields, butterflies, aquifers, or invasive plants — to mention only a few examples. And because scale is variable, you can zoom in or out to customize it to your story and audience.
