Cynthia Barnett Let It Rain…

Cynthia Barnett Let It Rain…Or Not Award-winning journalist and author Cynthia Barnett has reported on water and climate worldwide, from emerging water strife in the eastern U.S. to epic drought in California and the rainiest place on Earth in Cherrapunji, India. Ms. Barnett has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Salon, Discover, Orion, Ensia, and many other publications. She is the author of three books on water, including her newest, Rain: A Natural and Cultural History, and a popular speaker from commencements to keynotes and university lecture series. Her latest topic is an engaging natural and cultural tour of RAIN, from its key roles in civilization, religion, and art; to the peculiar history of the world’s first raincoat; to the rain obsessions of our “Founding Forecaster,” Thomas Jefferson – all building to the uncharted rains of climate change. Too much and not enough, rain is a shared experience, and one of the ways climate change can become a conversation rather than a confrontation. Rain—where it is and where it isn’t—in one of the most critical issues of our time. The New Yorker’s Elizabeth Kolbert calls Rain “a lovely, lyrical, deeply informative book.” Famed American historian Douglas Brinkley describes it as “a landmark work of environmental history … Rain is a triumph.” Ms. Barnett’s first book, Mirage, won the gold medal for best nonfiction in the Florida Book Awards and was named by The St. Petersburg Times as one of the top 10 books that every Floridian should read. Her second book, Blue Revolution, which calls for a water ethic for America, was named by The Boston Globe as one of the top 10 science books of 2011. The Globe describes Ms. Barnett’s author persona as “part journalist, part mom, part historian, and part optimist.” The Los Angeles Times writes that she “takes us back to the origins of our water in much the same way, with much the same vividness and compassion as Michael Pollan led us from our kitchens to potato fields and feed lots of modern agribusiness.” Ms. Barnett lives in Gainesville, Florida, with her husband and their children, and teaches environmental journalism at the University of Florida. Her numerous journalism awards include a national Sigma Delta Chi prize for investigative magazine reporting and eight Green Eyeshades, which recognize outstanding journalism in 11 southeastern states. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and master's in American history with a specialization in environmental history, both from the University of Florida, and spent a year studying freshwater as a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan. .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Environmental Journalism 2020
October 2020 CrainsNewsPro.com Remote Skillset Tips A SPECIAL REPORT When Traveling Isn’t an Option Pushing Past Barriers Page 8 Alternative Paths to Climate Change Scoops Environmental Injustice Tackling Racism In Stories & Newsrooms Page 14 SEJ Celebrations On Two Fronts The 30-Year Mark and This Year’s Honorees Page 18 From Pythons to Nuclear Plants Mario Alejandro Ariza’s Miami Book Journey Page 34 The unified voice of the automotive industry working to create a cleaner, safer, smarter future. www.AutosInnovate.org @AutosInnovate Facebook.com/AutosInnovate Alliance for Automotive Innovation FROM THE EDITOR CrainsNewsPro.com How to Kill a T-Shirt As journalists worked overtime covering a host of harrowing disasters in recent months, Dan Shelley was battling for them on another front. e executive director of the Radio Television Digital News Association, and CONTENTS some of that organization’s other leaders, made personal pleas to a handful GETTING AROUND TRUMP ................... 4 of ecommerce executives, including Je Bezos, asking them to take down Environmental Reporters T-shirts and other merchandize with the words: “Rope. Tree. Journalist. Share Different Tactics Some Assembly Required.” e how-to-kill-a-journalist type of merch rst gained notoriety at REMOTE TECHNIQUES ......................... 8 a Donald Trump rally late in the 2016 election cycle. And it still keeps The Best Ways to Tackle showing up on Etsy, Walmart, eBay and Amazon’s sites. “It’s like Whac-A-Mole. Every time Stories in the Home Ofﬁ ce they pop up, we’re trying to get them down,” Shelley said. Mostly, they’ve succeeded. TV SHOW EVOLUTION .......................
[Show full text]
TRI Tension Pollution Database Is Imperfect, but a Great Source
Winter 2006 SThe QuarterlyE PublicationJ of theournal Society of Environmental Journalists Vol. 16 No. 4 TRI tension Pollution database is imperfect, but a great source By JAMES BRUGGERS The threat to the database comes from the EPA, and has been What began 18 years ago as a tedious new way to find out closely tracked by SEJ’s First Amendment Task Force. In the about pollution has become an indispensable tool for journalists name of “burden reduction,” EPA last year proposed to cut back – one now under threat of being rendered less useful. on some of what it requires companies to report each year. It also The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics told Congress it might move to every-other-year reporting. Release Inventory is the first place a reporter, editor or news Congress subsequently put a temporary halt on the first proposal. producer can go to find out how much pollution comes from an The second proposal is still floating out there, though both are per- industrial facility. Or is generated in a zip code, a county, a state haps less likely given the new Democratic majority in Congress. or the entire nation. SEJ submitted formal objections to the proposed changes It’s also a place where journalists can track trends – though Given the recent tension over TRI, I was asked to be on a that can be harder because the rules on what panel at the SEJ conference in Burlington, and facilities must report have changed over the to talk about how journalists use the database.
[Show full text]
Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S
Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S. by Cynthia Barnett http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=187043 The University of Michigan Press, 2007 1 History & Myth a florida. Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León gave the penin- sula its modern name when he stepped ashore on the Atlantic coast in 1513. It was Easter season, known in Spanish as the pascua ›orida. You have no doubt heard that when he discovered Florida, Ponce de León was searching for the Fountain of Youth. One sip from the magi- cal fountain would cure any ailment, keep a man young. To this day, schoolchildren learn the story in fourth grade. But it is not true. The best historical sources, including the highly detailed charter given to him by the king of Spain, offer no evidence that Ponce de León ever gave thought to a Fountain of Youth, much less that he sailed to what is now Florida to look for it. The truth is that Ponce de León carried a contract to settle the lands he discovered and to enslave native people. Such is myth. If it is more appealing than the real story, and if it endures long enough, it can over- come truth. Florida has always drawn powerful mythmakers, so bold in their visions that their made-up stories have often come true. Consider: On the eve of the twentieth century, Florida was home to 12 Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S. by Cynthia Barnett http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=187043 The University of Michigan Press, 2007 History and Myth only 529,000 souls, and among the poorest states in the American South.1 Even as land speculators pitched the place as a balmy, beautiful land of opportunity, they mourned privately over worthless swampland and malarial living conditions.
[Show full text]
Press Release
PRESS RELEASE For immediate release Contact: Chelle Koster Walton [email protected] 239-699-4754 Caption: Cynthia Barnett [Attached: Book cover; Water/Ways, Florida Humanities, and Smithsonian logos] Smithsonian Water/Ways exhibit speaker series presents ‘Blue Revolution’ In conjunction with the visiting Smithsonian Water/Ways exhibit at the “Ding” Darling Visitor & Education Center Oct. 28 through Dec. 7, 2016, “Ding” Darling Wildlife Society-Friends of the Refuge (DDWS) will be hosting a free “Soak-It-In Speaker Series” on select Fridays at 1 p.m. The second in the series features award-winning environmental journalist Cynthia Barnett, who will present “Blue Revolution: A Water Ethic for Florida and America” on Friday, Nov. 4 at 1 p.m. Barnett’s presentation is based on her book Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s Water Crisis, which The Boston Globe named as one of the top 10 science books of 2011. The Globe describes the author as "part journalist, part mom, part historian, and part optimist." The Los Angeles Times writes that she "takes us back to the origins of our water in much the same way, with much the same vividness and compassion as Michael Pollan led us from our kitchens to potato fields and feed lots of modern agribusiness." Barnett has written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Discover magazine, and a number of other publications. Her numerous journalism awards include a national Sigma Delta Chi prize for investigative magazine reporting and eight Green Eyeshades, which recognize outstanding journalism in 11 southeastern states. The author teaches environmental journalism and nature and adventure writing at the University of Florida's College of Journalism and Communications in Gainesville, where she lives with her husband and children.
[Show full text]
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Sunday, September 11, 2016 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. IUVA Workshop Room: Salon H-G Advanced Oxidation Upstream and Downstream: UV/Cl2 vs UV/H2O2 Professor Olya Keen, University of North Carolina, Charlotte Making Sense of UV-Oxidation: EEO and Dose Together Ensure Potable Reuse Meets Goals Alan Royce, TrojanUV Bacteriophage Regulations and Impact on Reuse System Kati Bell, MWH Analysis of Variability in UV Disinfection Systems Following a Stochastic Approach Ernest R. Blatchley III, Purdue University UV System for High Level Disinfection – Operation and Maintenance Gary Hunter, Black & Veatch 12:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Technical Tour: Hillsborough DPR Pilot Tour + Brew House Tour/Tasting (departs from the Hotel Lobby) 1:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Registration Open (Grand Ballroom Foyer) A1 B1 C1 D1 Reuse Boot Camp Reuse “Florida Style” Potable Reuse Water Quality Operations Topics – Part I Moderator: Tim Moderator: Amanda Moderator: Troy Walker, Moderator: Thomure, City of Tucson Schwerman, Black & Veatch Hazen and Sawyer Water Department Room: Salon C&D Room: Salon A&B Room: Salon G&H Room: Salon I&J 1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Welcome and Aquifer Recharge in Tampa Building a Framework Assessment of Ceramic Introduction Bay: Overview of Program for Potable Reuse MBR Technology for Objectives and Lessons Operator Certification in Municipal Water Guy Carpenter, Learned California Reuse AquaTecture, LLC Christopher Hill, ARCADIS Wendy Broley, Brown and James DeCarolis, Black & Caldwell Veatch ▪ What is Water Reuse 2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. The Broward and
[Show full text]
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Sunday, September 11, 2016 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. IUVA Workshop (additional $100 workshop fee applies) Advanced Oxidation Upstream and Downstream: UV/Cl vs UV H2O Professor Olya Keen, University of North Carolina, Charlotte Making Sense of UV-Oxidation: EEO and Dose Together Ensure Potable Reuse Meets Goals Alan Royce, TrojanUV Bacteriophage Regulations and Impact on Reuse System Kati Bell, MWH Removal and Inactivation of Emerging Pathogen and Virus for Reuse Systems Naoko Munikata, Los Angeles County Sanitation District Analysis of Variability in UV Disinfection Systems Following a Stochastic Approach Ernest R. Blatchley III, Purdue University 12:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Technical Tour: Hillsborough DPR Pilot Tour + Brew House Tour/Tasting (additional $55 tour fee applies; lunch will not be included) 1:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Registration Open A1 B1 C1 D1 Reuse Boot Camp Reuse “Florida Style” Potable Reuse Water Quality Operations Topics – Part I 1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Welcome and Aquifer Recharge in Tampa Building a Framework Assessment of Ceramic Introduction Bay: Overview of Program for Potable Reuse MBR Technology for Objectives and Lessons Operator Certification in Municipal Water Guy Carpenter, Learned California Reuse AquaTecture, LLC Christopher Hill, Arcadis Wendy Broley, Brown and James DeCarolis, Black & Caldwell Veatch ▪ What is Water Reuse 2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. The Broward and Palm Optimization of California Title 22 ▪ Water’s Supply and Beach Counties Regional Wastewater Reverse Compliant Spot Check Water Reuse’s Role Reclaimed Water Osmosis – Improving Bioassays for UV ▪ Speaking the Same Cooperative Partnership Performance through System Performance- Language and Why It’s More Aggressive Accurate Results Lie in Important Kevin Carter, Broward County Operation the Details Water and Wastewater Services Greg Wetterau, CDM Smith Steve McDermid, Types of Reuse/Fit for TrojanUV Purpose 2:30 p.m.
[Show full text]
Cynthia Barnett Education Academic Professional Practice Previous
Cynthia Barnett Environmental Journalist in Residence University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications 3063 Weimer Hall Gainesville, Florida, 32611 contact: 352-376-4440/clbarnett(at)jou.ufl.edu website: www.cynthiabarnett.net twitter: @CynthiaBarnett Education 2004-2005: Knight-Wallace Fellow, University of Michigan, mid-career journalism fellowship in freshwater resources. 2003: Master of Arts, American History, University of Florida, specialization in environmental history. 1989: Bachelor of Science, Journalism, University of Florida, with honors. Academic 2017-present: Environmental Journalist in Residence, UF College of Journalism and Communications. 2018-2020: Environmental Fellow, The Bob Graham Center for Public Service. 2015-2016: Hearst Visiting Professional, UF College of Journalism and Communications. Courses developed and taught: Environmental Journalism (grad & undergrad); Nature & Adventure Journalism (grad & undergrad); Civic Engagement/Environmental Justice; Environmental & Sustainability Leadership; and Viral Rhetoric, a skills course in op-ed writing, viral video and developing a TED talk. Affiliate Faculty Member: Florida Climate Institute; Graham Center for Public Service; UF Water Institute. Special PhD Advisor: {Current} Michael Munroe, Mass Communications, Translating the story of arctic change to distant audiences. {Past} Jennifer Adler, Interdisciplinary Ecology, 2018, Visual Ecology: Communicating springs science through conservation photography and environmental education. Professional practice
[Show full text]
Report of On-Site Evaluation of Undergraduate Programs for 2017-2018 Visits — 1
Report of on-site evaluation of undergraduate programs for 2017-2018 Visits — 1 Report of On-Site Evaluation ACEJMC Undergraduate program 2017–2018 Name of Institution: University of Florida Name and Title of Chief Executive Officer: President W. Kent Fuchs Name of Unit: College of Journalism and Communications Name and Title of Administrator: Dean Diane McFarlin Date of 2017-2018 Accrediting Visit: Jan. 28-31, 2018 Date of the previous accrediting visit: Jan. 29-Feb. 1, 2012 Recommendation of the previous site visit team: Reaccreditation Previous decision of the Accrediting Council: Reaccreditation Recommendation by 2017-2018 Visiting Team: Reaccreditation Prepared and submitted by: Team Chair Name and Title: Christopher Callahan, Dean and Vice Provost Organization/School: Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University Signature ______________________________________________________________________________ Team Members Name and Title: Peter Debreceny, Strategic Communications Consultant Organization/School: Arthur W. Page Society Signature ______________________________________________________________________________ Name and Title: Vincent Duffy, News Director Organization/School: Michigan Radio Signature ______________________________________________________________________________ Name and Title: Dr. Anne Hoag, Associate Professor and Director of Intercollege Minor in Entrepreneurship & Innovation Organization/School: Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, Pennsylvania State University
[Show full text]
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Sunday, September 11, 2016 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. IUVA Workshop (additional $100 workshop fee applies) Advanced Oxidation Upstream and Downstream: UV/Cl vs UV H2O Professor Olya Keen, University of North Carolina, Charlotte Making Sense of UV-Oxidation: EEO and Dose Together Ensure Potable Reuse Meets Goals Alan Royce, TrojanUV Bacteriophage Regulations and Impact on Reuse System Kati Bell, MWH Removal and Inactivation of Emerging Pathogen and Virus for Reuse Systems Naoko Munikata, Los Angeles County Sanitation District Analysis of Variability in UV Disinfection Systems Following a Stochastic Approach Ernest R. Blatchley III, Purdue University 12:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Technical Tour: Hillsborough DPR Pilot Tour + Brew House Tour/Tasting (additional $55 tour fee applies; lunch will not be included) 1:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Registration Open A1 B1 C1 D1 Reuse Boot Camp Reuse “Florida Style” Potable Reuse Water Quality Operations Topics – Part I 1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Aquifer Recharge in Tampa Building a Framework Assessment of Ceramic Bay: Overview of Program for Potable Reuse MBR Technology for Welcome and Objectives and Lessons Operator Certification in Municipal Water Introduction Learned California Reuse Christopher Hill, Arcadis Wendy Broley, Brown and James DeCarolis, Black & ▪ What is Water Reuse Caldwell Veatch ▪ Water’s Supply and 2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Water Reuse’s Role The Broward and Palm Optimization of California Title 22 Beach Counties Regional Wastewater Reverse Compliant Spot Check ▪ Speaking the Same Reclaimed Water Osmosis – Improving Bioassays for UV Language and Why It’s Cooperative Partnership Performance through System Performance- Important More Aggressive Accurate Results Lie in Operation the Details Kevin Carter, Broward County Types of Reuse/Fit for Water and Wastewater Services Greg Wetterau, CDM Smith Steve McDermid, Purpose TrojanUV 2:30 p.m.
[Show full text]
Florida Lecture Series Bill Belleville SEPTEMBER 13 LAWTON M
2012-2013 2012-2013 LECTURE SCHEDULE MARCH 14 Florida Lecture Series Bill Belleville SEPTEMBER 13 LAWTON M. CHILES, JR. Nature Writer, Photographer, William McKeen CENTER FOR FLORIDA HISTORY Film Maker “Mile Marker Zero – Founded in 2001, The Lawton M. Chiles Center “Preserving a Sense of Place The Moveable Feast of Key West” for Florida History strives to enhance the teaching, in Florida: How Nature Shapes study, and writing of Florida history. The Center OCTOBER 4 seeks to preserve the state’s past through cooperative Culture” efforts with historical societies, preservation groups, Andrew T. Huse museums, public programs, media, and interested Award-winning nature writer and film maker “Florida Foodways” Bill Belleville summarizes himself like this: “I make persons. This unique center, housed in the Sarah my living as a nonfiction writer specializing in D. and L. Kirk McKay, Jr., Archives Center is a nature and conservation. I’ve authored six books, NOVEMBER 15 source of continuing information created to increase contributed to eight national anthologies, written Jonathon Sheppard appreciation for Florida history. over 1,000 articles and essays, and scripted and co- “Florida Soldiers in the Civil War” produced seven films. BOARD OF GOVERNORS: JANUARY 10 “On assignment, I’ve traveled to Australia, the White Dr. James M. Denham, Executive Director Sea of Russia, the Galapagos, Central and South Cynthia Barnett Ms. Kristen Gunter, Lakeland America, Cuba and throughout the Antilles. Florida, “Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Mrs. Mimi Hardman, Lake Wales where I live, remains my favorite place for its natural Water of the Eastern U.S.” Mr. Kent Lilly, Lakeland diversity and wonderful surreality.” Professor Walter W.
[Show full text]
MIRAGE Barnett Ftmat.Qxd 3/5/2007 1:41 PM Page Iii
Barnett_Ftmat.qxd 3/5/2007 1:40 PM Page i MIRAGE Barnett_Ftmat.qxd 3/5/2007 1:41 PM Page iii MIRAGE florida and the vanishing water of the eastern u.s. Cynthia Barnett the university of michigan press ann arbor Barnett_Ftmat.qxd 3/5/2007 1:41 PM Page iv Copyright © 2007 by Cynthia Barnett All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-free paper 2010 2009 2008 2007 4 3 2 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Barnett, Cynthia, 1966– Mirage : Florida and the vanishing water of the Eastern U.S. / Cynthia Barnett. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-472-11563-1 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-472-11563-4 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Water consumption—Florida. 2. Water consumption—East (U.S.) 3. Florida—Environmental conditions. 4. East (U.S.)— Environmental conditions. 5. Water conservation—Florida. 6. Water conservation—East (U.S.) 7. Water-supply—Florida. 8. Water- supply—East (U.S.) I. Title. td224.f6b368 2007 333.91'1309759—dc22 2006036415 Barnett_Ftmat.qxd 3/5/2007 1:41 PM Page v o my grandmothers. Elsie Catherine Taylor Barnett in childhood walked through fragrant orange groves to pump drinking water for her family in Pinellas County on Florida’s west coast.
[Show full text]
Cynthia Barnett on Florida's Water Crisis
Suwannee-St. Johns Group Sierra ClubNewsletter Published monthly except June and August from Gainesville, Florida VOLUME 42 • NUMBER 7 • September 2012 GENERAL MEETING Cynthia Barnett on Thursday, September 6, 7:30 p.m. NEW LOCATION: Unitarian Universalist Florida’s Water Crisis Fellowship of Gainesville 4225 NW 34th Street, Gainesville that flows to our taps, irrigates our BY SSJ SIERRA CLUB BLUE REVOLUTION: food and produces our electricity. A WATER ETHIC FOR And most don’t realize their fresh- mericans (and Floridians) AMERICA & FLORIDA see water as abundant and water sources are in trouble. CYNTHIA BARNETT cheap: We turn on the fau- In her talk, “Blue Revolution: A Water Ethic for America & Florida,” award-win- AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST Acet and out it gushes, for less than a ning journalist Cynthia Barnett describes penny a gallon. We use more water an illusion of water abundance that has than any other culture in the world, encouraged everyone, from homeowners to much to quench what’s now our farmers to utilities, to tap more and more. largest crop – the lawn. Yet most She proposes the most important part of cannot name the river or aquifer the solution is also the simplest and least expensive: a shared water ethic among citi- zens, government and major water users. Cynthia Barnett is a long-time journalist who has reported on freshwater issues from the Suwannee River to Singapore. Her newest book, “Blue Revolution,” was named by The Boston Globe as one of the top 10 sci- ence books of 2011. The Globe describes Ms. Barnett’s author persona as “part journalist, part mom, part his- torian, and part optimist.” TAKE NOTE! The Los Angeles Times writes that she “takes us back to the origins of our water in much the same way, with SSJ Sierra Club General Meet- much the same vividness and compassion as Michael ings are now being held in a Pollan led us from our kitchens to potato fields and NEW LOCATION! feedlots of modern agribusiness.” Ms.
[Show full text]