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SEJournal is the weekly digital news magazine of the Society of Environmental Journalists. SEJ members are automatically subscribed. Nonmembers may subscribe using the link below. Send questions, comments, story ideas, articles, news briefs and tips to Editor Adam Glenn at sejournaleditor@sej.org. Or contact Glenn if you're interested in joining the SEJournal volunteer editorial staff.

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September 24, 2025

  • Freelance journalists, including environmental reporters, need not brave legal woes alone, counsels Freelance Files co-editor Elyse Hauser. A wide variety of groups offers aid for everything from denials of access to assaults or arrests, and her latest entry IDs more than a dozen resources, including legal assistance, emergency financial help and more. Plus, how to prevent problems to begin with.

  • An important federal database that tracks Arctic ice and snowmelt — which help address concerns like sea level rise and fresh water resources — is facing funding cuts and reductions in services. The latest Reporter’s Toolbox looks at the kind of high-quality information the National Snow and Ice Data Center can provide environmental reporters, including for local stories. That is, while it lasts.

  • The story behind the story that captures the “real” Florida is the essence of a new volume from veteran journalist and author Craig Pittman. BookShelf editor Tom Henry writes that “Welcome to Florida: True Tales from America’s Most Interesting State” not only taps into the state’s rich vein of the weird but offers a hefty dose of environmental topics, from climate change to manatees.

September 17, 2025

  • Just under two months from the start of the annual global forum for managing climate change — the United Nations’ conference of parties beginning Nov. 10 in Belém, Brazil — our Backgrounder analysis laments the vanishingly small chance that nations will agree on managing steadily rising greenhouse gas emissions. A look at the obstacles, plus COP30 reporting challenges, from hotel expenses to diplomatic spin.

  • From a simple autumn leaf can come a legion of local environmental stories, if you sift through the pile thoughtfully. The latest TipSheet ponders the possibilities, from who in your municipality actually gathers them and how they’re used as mulch and (possibly contaminated) compost, where you don’t want them to collect and what people used to do with them that these days is a no-no.

  • When reporters from Inside Climate News and The Texas Tribune teamed up on a multipart series about Texas environmental regulators, they found state agencies sidestepping science, the law and accountability. The beneficiaries? The oil and gas industry. Their prizewinning reporting was praised for its data analysis, and public records and field reporting. Read an Inside Story Q&A with Martha Pskowski of Inside Climate News.

September 10, 2025

  • As government resistance intensifies over sharing public records — especially environmental documents — journalists need to hone their skills to get the information they need to do their jobs and serve their audiences. FOIA expert David Cuillier offers tips and tactics to help you use your reporting time and dollars most effectively and ensure your public records requests produce high-quality results.

  • 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.

September 3, 2025

  • If you’re thinking of reporting on major greenhouse gas emitters in your coverage area by using long-standing U.S. government data, better act fast — a key source of that information may soon disappear, warns the latest TipSheet. Find out who’s working to save the numbers, plus get more than a dozen story ideas and reporting resources.

  • 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.

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