"The world’s land and water resources are being exploited at “unprecedented rates,” a new United Nations report warns, which combined with climate change is putting dire pressure on the ability of humanity to feed itself."
The Nina Mason Pulliam Award judges had the privilege of reading the winning projects from every category of SEJ’s 2019 Awards for Reporting on the Environment, and the difficult task of choosing one from among them for this "best of the best" honor. Reuters' "Ocean Shock" series, a deeply reported and stunningly presented look at an underwater crisis of global proportions by Maurice Tamman, Matthew Green, Mari Saito, Sarah Slobin and Maryanne Murray, is this year's Pulliam winner. The prize includes $10,000 and a trip to SEJ's 29th annual conference in Fort Collins, Colorado this October.
"Current and former regulators, staffers and industry officials say Trump and his chosen chairman, former Mitch McConnell aide Neil Chatterjee, have politicized an independent agency typically known for nonpartisan rulemaking on issues including natural gas pipelines and regional power markets. The dissension has made it difficult to retain staff, fill a vacant commissioner post and issue rulings on critical issues facing the nation’s electricity supply."
"Around Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey’s largest lake, workers have been laid off, sailing lessons canceled and summers ruined. The reason: clouds of blue-green algae in the water, blooming in quantities never before recorded."
"A new nuclear test reactor is needed as part of an effort to revamp the nation’s fading nuclear power industry by developing safer fuel and power plants, the U.S. Department of Energy said Monday."
"To save birds such as the cackling goose, first the foxes had to go."
"Beer is mostly water — more than 90 percent, in some cases. Which is why the craft brewing industry is increasingly concerned about the Trump administration’s attempt to deregulate the 1972 Clean Water Act."
"The Loch Mary Reservoir holds enough water to fill about 715 Olympic-sized swimming pools. All that stands between that wall of water and Annette Rudolph’s Earlington, Kentucky neighborhood is a 95-year-old earthen dam, deteriorating and seeping water."
"The Department of Agriculture may have exceeded its spending authority when it moved forward with plans to relocate two of its research agencies, an inspector general review said."
"The state of Texas is suing Exxon Mobil for environmental violations, including releasing millions of gallons of firefighting wastewater into the Houston Ship Channel after the petrochemical giant’s most recent fire and explosion in Baytown."
