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TipSheet is a biweekly source for story ideas, background, interview leads and reporting tools for journalists who cover news of the environment.

For questions and comments, or to suggest future TipSheets, email the TipSheet Editor Joseph A. Davis at sejournaleditor@sej.org.

Journalists can receive TipSheet free by subscribing to the SEJournal Online, the digital news magazine of the Society of Environmental Journalists. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. TipSheet is also available through the searchable archive below and via RSS feed.


Latest TipSheet Items

November 9, 2011

  • Researchers at Southern Methodist University, funded by Google, have estimated relative geothermal potential in the US with a new map based in part on oil and gas drilling data. Google says the newer geothermal technologies that are being explored in the US and other countries suggest there may be decent geothermal prospects in all 50 states.

  • The agency would add slightly more acreage to the lists of sensitive land and water areas where fire retardant could be dropped only in cases where human life or public safety is threatened. There would be no significant changes in the formula of the retardant, or the general strategy used to determine when and where it's appropriate to drop retardant.

October 26, 2011

October 12, 2011

  • Commuters who travel to work via bicycle put a dent in petroleum consumption and air pollution, and likely have a leg up on not becoming part of the obesity epidemic. Davis, CA, residents are at the head of the pack of the 375 largest US cities surveyed, with 22.1% of the city's residents commuting by bike, according to US Census Bureau statistics compiled by the League of American Bicyclists.

  • The topic of federal loan guarantees for energy projects has become prime media territory with the bankruptcy of the solar company Solyndra after it received one of these loans. As of September 30, 2011, DoE has issued about $40 billion for solar, wind, geothermal, biofuels, nuclear, energy efficiency, energy storage, battery storage, or transmission projects.

  • Current fishing methods are rather destructive, with 17% of the fish caught commercially being unintended bycatch, according to NOAA's first national assessment of bycatch. That damages the environment, and costs those who fish time and money.

  • Numerous allegations of health damage from people in the US and around the globe, the common threads in the descriptions of health damage (often appearing to involve the neurological, immune, and/or endocrine systems), and the evidence from thousands of published studies that address a wide range of electrical, magnetic field, and radio-frequency impacts suggest this could be a major public health issue that warrants coverage.

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