"About 5,000 oil and gas wells sit on national wildlife refuges — some of the prettiest land that American taxpayers own — and more than a thousand of them are spewing oil and brine because regulations written a half-century ago don’t force owners to plug leaks that are harmful to animals."
"PARIS - Global climate talks are taking longer than planned to overcome disputes and will last an extra day into Saturday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said."
The quarterly SEJ President's Report in SEJournal normally examines an issue important to the future health of the Society of Environmental Journalists and what you as a member might do about it. This time, in the just-released Winter 2015 issue, Jeff Burnside's report examines a different set of responsibilities: whether journalism is asleep at the wheel in failing to sufficiently cover a looming, irreversible environmental issue. Our most iconic and beloved wild species are now on the precipice of extinction, functionally if not literally.
In this issue: On our watch, say goodbye to tigers; kickstart an EJ career with the new SEJ Emerging Environmental Journalist Award; Oregonian reporter ‘humanizes’ harm; finding stories with the National Inventory of Dams; sticking to the freelance life; author spends two decades ‘hooked on a character’; ignoring the elephant in the (news)room; journalism and science students take to field together; more.
"Douglas Tompkins, who made a fortune in retailing as the founder of The North Face and co-founder of Esprit and went on to become a major donor to conservation causes, has died in a kayaking accident in Chile. He was 72."
"State and city regulators need to do a better job enforcing laws meant to protect children from lead poisoning if the longtime health scourge is ever to be eliminated, key lawmakers and community leaders said Monday."
"Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co., two historic giants of American industry, are considering a merger that would ultimately dismantle both along lines proposed by activist investors over the past two years."
"Scientists keep rallying behind Kathryn Sullivan, the federal official on one side of a two-month standoff with a senior House Republican over a groundbreaking climate change study."
"A contingent of powerful U.S. representatives are pressing the chief executives of six of the country's largest fossil fuel companies, including ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell, to answer questions about when the companies first understood that burning fossil fuels drives climate change and whether they became active partners in an effort to downplay the harm that could result."
"Global carbon dioxide emissions may be dropping ever so slightly this year, spurred by a dramatic plunge in Chinese pollution, according to a surprising new study released Monday."
