Winter 1998 SEJournal The Quarterly Publication of the Society of Environmental Journalists Vol. 7 No. 4 Interview with Ben Bradlee Grazing: it’s Get it, get it right a jungle in Ben Bradlee, Vice-President-at- editor of the Boston Globe). We were Large for The Washington Post, spent an reporters together on this paper so long the arid West hour with mem- ago that it’s embarrassing. He started By SUSAN ZAKIN bers of the SEJ on me years ago that we, the industry, “Be careful,” said the tall man in board and staff but also the Post, ought to be doing the cowboy hat. on January 9. more on the environment, which was cer- I did a double-take. Was this a SEJ’s goal in tainly true. fatherly benediction? Seemed a little requesting the Tim Wirth, who was the Senator strange, since I had just been asking meeting was to from Colorado, has been in the State the same man, a member of a so-called introduce Department, and is about to become the “progressive” ranching group, rather Bradlee to the director of Ted Turner’s one billion tough questions in a panel discussion organization, and dollar gift to the United Nations, got on cattle grazing in the West. Ben Bradlee to draw out the me involved in environmental issues. Then it dawned on me. well-known editor’s advice on furthering And finally there was Tom Lovejoy of I had spent my first decade in jour- SEJ’s mission. the Smithsonian who is a leader in this nalism as a daily reporter, interviewing area. It crystallized for me when they pimps, prostitutes, murderers and Bradlee: You should know that I am dared me to go on a trip to the rain forest rapists. But this rancher was the first quite lately come to involvement in the of Brazil. It was one of the best times person to threaten me. environment area. I’ve had two or three I’ve ever had in my life. Welcome to the West. gurus. The first is Tom Winship (former (Continued on page 19) (Continued on page 21) In this issue Kyoto a serious circus SEJ News n Newsroom outreach program is up and Global warming politics make strange bedfellows running...... page 4 By DALE CURTIS The conference scene reminded me Science Survey When people learned I had just of an American political party conven- n U N’s Year of the Ocean ...... page 10 returned from covering the UN climate tion. Participants wearing color-coded change negotiations in Kyoto, Japan, the credentials swarmed like ants through- Viewpoints universal reaction seemed to be: “That out a modern conference facility filled to n WISEUSE director wants reporters to circus? What was it like? “Did it really the rafters with banners, exhibits and practice “deep journalism” ...... page 11 accomplish anything?” Assuming SEJ rows of impromptu working spaces. Bookshelf members might pose the same questions, The media mob was one of the n Author Sandra Steingraber disects an I will try to answer them. largest I’d ever seen. Indeed, nearly unfavorable review ...... page 12 My missions in Kyoto were to pro- 3,500 credentialed journalists covered Reporters Toolbox vide breaking news and “color” com- the event, outnumbering the 2,200 offi- mentary for inclusion with Greenwire’s cial delegates and nearly matching the n Suzanne Spencer offers tips on covering daily “cover-the-coverage” news sum- number of representatives of various the new organic regs ...... page 14 mary; to do some serious networking advocacy groups, estimated at 3,600. In Features and promotion for Greenwire; and to a sign of shrewd planning, the activists n Newspaper with an attitude ...... page 15 satisfy my own intellectual curiosity and and reporters were located side-by-side Green beat love of adventure. I’m pleased to report in the cavernous “event hall,” just a two- n State by state roundup ...... page 26 that the trip was a success on all counts. (Continued on page 23)
© Copyright 1998 the Society of Environmental Journalists, P.O. Box 27280 Philadelphia, PA 19118 Good news sure beats bad Despite some adolescent growing Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, and who are supportive of SEJ’s efforts on pains, this organization—your organiza- $10,000 from the Lyndhurst Foundation. behalf of the profession. (If you know of a tion—is in pretty good shape for 1998. The budget approved in Washington prospect, please let me know). Within the past month we have provides $325,000 in operating funds and We may pursue an idea offered by received confirmation of $80,000 in new a $44,000 reserve at the end of the year Washington Post managing editor Robert or renewed foundation grants. That news (compared to a $345,000 operating budget Kaiser: publishing a catalogue of the best enabled the board to adopt a $369,000 and $30,000 reserve in the year just ended. environmental journalism of the past budget that—provided members continue We will lose the one temporary staff posi- decade, as a reminder to editors and pub- to tirelessly volunteer their time—should tion, now held by Jim Quigley, who lishers about the enormous payoff when avert any reduction in the member ser- served SEJ well. Some of his duties, such solid environmental reporters are given the vices you have come to expect. as overseeing the TipSheet, will be han- time and tools to commit serious journal- More important, a revitalized and dled by contract workers. ism. There are many impressive examples, energetic board is laying plans for some To address the long-term uncertainties and perhaps we’ll be contacting you for exciting new initiatives and the first major about foundation funding, treasurer Sara permission to excerpt your masterpiece. membership drive in five years. We also Thurin Rollin has launched several initia- On the national conference front, have obtained supportive letters from a Peter Dykstra and David Sachsman have number of the nation's premiere news Report from the devised an innovative program for the executives, including former Washington 1998 conference in Chattanooga that Post editor Ben Bradlee (see page 1), with society’s president should make this event fresh, while retain- whom the board met on Jan. 9 thanks to ing the best aspects of past conferences. the efforts of board member Gary Lee. We Watch for more details by mail in a couple all will reap the benefits, because such months. (The board agreed to keep mem- letters open doors to collaborations ber registration at $125 for early sign-up.) with other journalism institutions and The board’s conference site commit- funding from foundations that share SEJ tee is continuing its search for a suitable commitment to help journalists better location for the 2000 conference, (1999 is cover the environment. at UCLA and 2001 will be in Portland, Great ideas and a volunteer spirit have By Ore.) We are looking to the East Coast, distinguished SEJ and its members since Kevin perhaps the Washington area, due to the the organization was founded in 1990. Carmody presidential election year. If you have con- Reassessment and setbacks are part of the tacts at universities that might be interest- growing process, and we’ve had some dur- tives. At her request, the board contributed ed in hosting us, or a related idea, please ing the past six months. But I am now as over 20 written ideas for fundraising and contact David Ropeik at (617) 433-4575 excited about this organization’s long- alternative ways to pay for current ser- ([email protected]) term prospects as I was when all the early vices. Most are being reviewed by board When it comes to safeguarding the success far eclipsed the founding board’s committees. vitality of this organization, both finan- wildest dreams. One of the ideas—a modest dues cially and journalistically, the watchword Any reader of this column should be increase—was unanimously adopted by has to be eternal vigilance. We practice it aware of the short and long-range finan- the board. Non-student annual dues will in journalism as we engage in fact-finding cial challenges that SEJ faced in late 1997. increase by $5, to $40 per year. It is the and truth-seeking. We must, as SEJ mem- The board, I think wisely, had gambled first change in three years, and adheres to bers, remember that this organization’s SEJ’s cash reserves to hire a fourth staff the board’s prior policy to keep dues equal greatest strength is its members who are person to allow executive director Beth to those charged by Investigative willing to volunteer to chair conferences Parke the time to prepare major program Reporters & Editors, Inc., the journalism or contribute articles to the SEJournal, or and grant proposals. SEJ has always taken organization on which SEJ was most ask an editor to write a letter of support for prudent gambles, such as hiring Amy closely modeled. Student dues will remain SEJ or simply recruit a new member. Gahran and Beth Parke early on. And so, the same, at $30 per year. Please help us continue to make great due to Beth Parke’s careful stewardship of To bolster our fundraising and pro- things happen. Volunteer for something, SEJ’s remaining funds, and her diligent gram initiatives, board members are also no matter how small. Come to a board grant writing skills, the latest gamble is trying to expand the National Advisory meeting if we’re meeting close to you now beginning to pay off. Board that already includes New York (Ann Arbor, Mich., on March 14 and The new grants include $40,000 from Times managing editor Gene Roberts and Stanford, Calif., on July 18). Or offer a the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, former Boston Globe editor Tom Winship. suggestion by e-mail or phone. I will $20,000 each of the next two years from We are also aggressively pursuing more always welcome a call from a fellow SEJ the Turner Foundation, $10,000 from the letters from senior editors and publishers member, as will the rest of the board. v
2 Winter 1998 SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Letters SEJournal To the Editor: Jon Entine’s reporting on Anita Roddick’s association with SEJournal (ISSN: 1053-7082) is published quarterly by the Society of Environmental Journalists, P.O. Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118. Mother Jones (“Beware of ‘Green’ Firms”) is in error on a num- Membership $40 per year (student rate $30). Subscription fee $50; $30 ber of counts. At the time she was invited to join the board of library rate. © 1998 by the Society of Environmental Journalists. Mother Jones’ parent nonprofit, Anita had never made a financial contribution to Mother Jones. She had, after a visit to our offices, Editor offered to run a Mother Jones circulation insert in the Body Noel Grove Shop’s mail order catalog, a program that brought over 2,000 new Editorial Board Chair subscribers to the magazine. Because of her marketing savvy as Kevin Carmody well as her enthusiasm for our investigative work, we were happy Design Editor to invite her to join us. Chris Rigel Subsequent to Anita’s joining the board, Mother Jones was approached by Jon Entine about doing an investigation into Section Editors alleged unethical practices of the Body Shop. We declined to pur- Viewpoints Peter Fairley On-line Bits & Bytes Russ Clemings sue the story because of an obvious conflict of interest: Had we Science Survey Sara Thurin Rollin been unable to confirm the allegations during a fact-checking Media on the Move George Homsy process, we would have been in the situation of either running an Book Shelf Nancy Shute unsubstantiated story or risk being accused by the writer of sup- New Members List Chris Rigel pressing assertions due to pressure from a board member. Calendar Janet Raloff —Jay Harris, Publisher Green beat Kevin Carmody nnn SEJournal will accept unsolicited manuscripts. Send story ideas, articles, news briefs, tips, and letters-to-the-editor to Noel Grove, Mr. Entine responds: [email protected], P.O. Box 1016, Middleburg, VA 22118. Send According to a recorded interview with former editor Jeff calendar items to Janet Raloff, Science News, [email protected], 1719 N Klein, Roddick was invited to join the board after she visited Street N.W., Washington, DC 20036. For Green beat, contact Kevin Mother Jones’ offices, agreed to plug the magazine in her cos- Carmody, [email protected], 1447 1⁄2 W. Fletcher Street, Chicago, IL 60657; (708) 633-5970. For book reviews, contact Nancy Shute, metic brochures, and pledged to donate money to the magazine. [email protected], US News and World Report, 2400 N Street NW, If, as Harris now claims,the monies came subsequent to the Washington, DC 20037, (202) 955-2341. pledge, that is irrelevant to the quid pro quo. Harris also seems to have a lapse of memory as regards a For inquiries regarding the SEJ, please contact executive director proposed story on Body Shop. Well before I approached Mother Beth Parke at the SEJ office, P.O. Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118; Jones, former publisher and editor Mark Dowie recommended Ph:(215) 836-9970; Fax: (215) 836-9972. Via Internet: [email protected] that the magazine do an exposé on the UK retailer. “I wrote a note The Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) is a non-profit, tax exempt, to Jeff that this is a story you should really take a look at,” Dowie 501(c)3 organization. The mission of the organization is to advance public told me in a taped conversation on January 8,1995. “I never heard understanding of environmental issues by improving the quality, accuracy a word back.” Why did he think he never heard back? “Because and visibility of environmental reporting. We envision an informed society they just won’t report stories that might reflect back on them, through excellence in environmental journalism. As a network of journal- ists and academics, SEJ offers national and regional conferences, publica- their friends, or this ‘socially responsible’ gang,” said Dowie. tions and online services. SEJ’s membership of over 1,100 includes journal- —Jon Entine ists working for print and electronic media, educators, and students. Non- members are welcome to attend SEJ’s national conferences and to sub- nnn scribe to the quarterly SEJournal.
SEJournal on the World Wide Web: http://www.sej.org To the editor: When it comes to reporting on The Body Shop as Jon Entine SEJ Board of Directors: President, Kevin Carmody, Chicago Daily did in the Fall ‘97 SEJournal cover story “Beware of green Southtown, (708) 633-5970; vice president, Marla Cone, The Los Angeles Times, (800) 528-4637, ext. 73497; vice president, Mike Mansur, Kansas firms,” a number of factors make it impossible for Mr. Entine to City Star, (816) 234-4433; secretary, Gary Polakovic, The Press take the impartial approach so crucial to good journalism. Enterprise, (909) 782-7564; treasurer, Sara Thurin Rollin, Bureau of According to a paper released at the Media and Democracy National Affairs, (202) 452-4584; James Bruggers, Contra Costa Times, Congress earlier this year, “Unwise Use: How the media are (510) 943-8246; Russell Clemings, Fresno Bee, (209) 441-6371; Ann being used to discredit the progressive movement for environ- Goodman, Tomorrow Magazine, (212) 243-4327; Gary Lee, The mental and social justice,” by Lorna Salzman, “Entine’s wife Washington Post, (202) 334-4457; Jacques A. Rivard, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, (514) 597-5085; David Ropeik, WCVB-TV, Ellen Turner was hired to be a marketing executive for The Boston, (617) 449-0400; Angela Swafford, Telenoticias, (305) 376-2168. Limited, the parent company of The Body Shop’s largest US Representative for academic members: JoAnn Valenti, Brigham Young competitor, Bath and Body Works.” University, (801) 378-7020; Representative for associate members: Adlai In his article Mr. Entine alleges that “in exchange for a dona- Amor, freelance journalist, (703) 525-0710; Jim Detjen, ex officio board tion Roddick was placed on a panel” at the Institute for member: (517) 353-9479, Michigan State University. (Continued on page 16) SEJournal is printed on recycled paper
SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Fall 1997 3 SEJ News Outreach effort off and running SEJ runs workshops in California, Carolina newsrooms The SEJ newsroom outreach program staff. Structure and focus of training ses- impacts on the environment are substan- kicked off to an enthusiastic start in late sions would be tailored to needs of the tial.” Potential reporting topics under dis- 1997 when board members Russ participating newsroom. With project cussion included coastal development, Clemings of the Fresno Bee and Gary funding from the Geraldine R. Dodge wetlands, harbors, urban runoff, air pollu- Palokovic of The (Riverside, CA) Press- Foundation and the W. Alton Jones tion, surface mines, sand dunes and crops Enterprise visited The Ventura County Foundation, SEJ could offer the service with pesticide drift concerns. Star, a 95,000 circulation daily in free of charge. At a lunch following the three-hour Southern California. The Ventura County Star was one of tour Clemings and Palokovic met with a Clemings and Palokovic spent two several news organizations to express half-dozen writers and editors to focus on days with editors and reporters at the interest in the offer. The Star’s principal ways to broaden the environment beat newspaper to suggest ways to expand and circulation area of and identify potential improve environmental reporting. Acting Ventura County, stories. They also met as consultants, the pair toured the area population 700,000, “The newsroom is with executive editor with reporters, held workshops and pro- includes sprawling filled with good story Mike Gallagher to dis- vided one-on-one guidance. The result suburbs in the ideas. We now have cuss environmental was a very positive reception from staff northern San many more sources to reporting at the newspa- and management at The Star as well as Fernando Valley, consider.” per. SEJ’s visit con- numerous story leads for the newspaper. scenic beaches cluded Friday with a A second visitation took place at the north of Los two-hour workshop on Sun-News of Myrtle Beach, South Angeles, farms along the length of the computer-assisted environmental report- Carolina, in late January. Serving as con- Santa Clara River, and coastal plains in ing led by Clemings. sultants were SEJ board members Mike Oxnard and Ventura. In a followup letter to SEJ officers, Mansur of the Kansas City Star and Stuart In the tour of the county by the con- Gallagher commented: “I just wanted to Leavenworth of the Raleigh News & sultants and the newspaper’s staff, let you know that you have at least 40 Observer. More on this in the next issue. reporters explained the controversies sur- votes in Ventura County in favor of con- For the past few years, the Society of rounding various sites, giving Polakovic tinuing the advisers on-call program. Gary Environmental Journalists has wanted to and Clemings a chance to see issues with Polakovic and Russ Clemings...infected launch a newsroom outreach program to fresh eyes and suggest new story angles. this place like someone’s worst virus. help establish or improve environmental “Though in the shadow of the rapidly About 40 reporters spent time with Gary reporting. The intention was to send veter- growing Los Angeles region, the commu- and Russ, either individually or in confer- an environmental journalists from SEJ to nity appears resistant to growth and is ence sessions. The newsroom is filled interested newspapers, TV and radio sta- intent on preserving its rather substantial with good story ideas. We now have many tions, offering practical tips on how to agricultural lands as open space,” more sources to consider. I think it is one cover environmental stories with a limited observed Polakovic. “Nonetheless, urban of the best programs to come along.” v Awards list available at SEJ office SEJournal deadlines Spring 1998 ...... April 15, 1998 The SEJ office has compiled a list of site:
4 Winter 1998 SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 SEJ News
“I’m trading in my skis for a surf- environmental beat. Wilson displayed the “best qualities of board,” reports Eric Niiler. The former World traveller, A. Adam Glenn, investigative journalism” with his series, environmental reporter for the Quincy finally settled down last year. After spend- “Fear in the Fields,” about the practice of (MA) Patriot Ledger is going to have to ing months kicking around India, he land- turning contaminated industrial waste into learn new fish names as he heads west to ed a job as a producer at ABC News Online fertilizer. The Seattle Times reporter won the San Diego Union-Tribune. There he in New York City. He says it is an exciting the fourth annual John B. Oakes Award for will be a science writer working for the position since the organization makes an Distinguished Environmental Journalism, paper’s weekly science section. effort to incorporate original reporting into which is administered by the Natural Jennifer Langston is just starting to its website. Glenn splits his time between Resources Defense Council. Also recog- find her way around Greenville County in reporting and editing and has general, as nized were Sacramento Bee writers Tom South Carolina. That’s where she has set well as environmental, assignments. Knudson and Nancy Vogel for a five-part up shop as the environmental reporter for series on the health of California’s coastal the Greenville News. Langston recently waters. Another honorable mention was earned her master degree in journalism Media on the Move awarded to “Shear Madness” by Penny from the University of Maryland and cov- Loeb. The U.S. News and World Report ered statewide politics from the school’s Compiled by George Homsy feature examined the environmental and capitol newsbureau. social impacts of strip mining in West “I came back to Oregon,” sighs Staying in the Pacific Northwest, but Virginia. Environment and Natural Resources with a new job, is Terry FitzPatrick. He reporter Michele LaBounty. She is work- has joined the staff of National Public ing that beat for The Bulletin in Bend, Radio’s “Living on Earth.” Over the last Write a book? Start a fellowship? Oregon. She enjoyed her time at the few years, FitzPatrick the Freelancer has Switch jobs? Please submit all profession- Duluth (MN) News-Tribune, but, she says, worked for a number of clients including al news to George Homsy, Living on “it was extremely cold and no mountains.” “Living on Earth” and the History Channel. Earth, 8 Story Street, Cambridge, MA More importantly, she says, this move “Now I’m in a sensible place,” he reports. 02138. Tel: 617-520-6857. Fax: 617-868- west gave her a chance to get back to the In the words of one judge, Duff 8659. E-mail: [email protected] Tucson meeting sparks coverage Scholarship offered to Evaluations positive, but new format planned for UTC high school students High school students in the United By JAY LETTO ference in the Los Angeles Times (envi- States interested in studying environ- A finally tally of forms evaluating ronment and religion), the Arizona mental and science journalism are eligi- SEJ’s annual conference last October and Republic (ranching and NPS director ble for a new annual $500 scholarship an informal survey of stories published Robert Stanton on Grand Canyon issues), given by the Environmental Journalism about the gathering indicate a high degree CNN (Biosphere 2), KVOA-TV in Program at Michigan State University. of success in the desert heat of Tucson. Tucson (the Nogales border tour), NPR’s The scholarship will go toward A total of 28 conference evaluation Living on Earth (NAFTA’s “Fast Track”), studying environmental and science forms were returned this year, or 5.9 per- Sierra Vista Herald (San Pedro River journalism at the university. The win- cent of the 477 attendees. However, 23 of area), and Minnesota Public Radio (CO2 ner will also participate in the Michigan the forms were returned by SEJ members, and plant growth). Chuck Quirmbach Interscholastic Press Association dinner or 9.1 percent of the 254 members who with Wisconsin Public Radio gleaned five and spring conference at MSU’s attended. (Five percent return is generally stories from the conference. Breslin Center on April 21 and 22, and considered statistically valid.) The forms In the “basic evaluation” section, 18 attend the Great Lakes Environmental can be returned annonymously (most are), of 25 respondents gave glowing praise Journalism Training Institute June 2—6 offering ample opportunity for respon- (“Excellent conference and great way to at the university. dents to pass along complaints. compare notes and network,” and “Very “It is my hope that this new schol- Eight respondents said that they had informative and enlightening... I look for- arship will encourage some of the most filed or would file stories from the confer- ward to future conferences”). talented high school journalism stu- ence on topics such as the San Pedro Each year we get negative reviews of dents to attend MSU to study environ- River, cooperation in the environmental certain events and sessions, and this year mental and science journalism,” said movement, garbology, Biosphere 2, garnered about the same number. One Jim Detjen, MSU’s director of Grand Canyon, NAFTA, nuclear regula- respondent gave a bad overall review Environmental Journalism and holder tion, and the border environment. In addi- (“Great location, weak program”), and six of the Knight Chair in Journalism. tion, SEJ staffers also came across stories others gave mixed reviews (“Excellent Detjen said he hopes to raise funds to that included information from the con- (Continued on page 7) increase the size of the scholarship.
SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Winter 1998 5 SEJ News Members respond to survey on top stories By JIM QUIGLEY water treatment plants is a ‘fleecing of congressional elections. Global climate change, El Niño and America.’ Ron Mader, a freelancer who Member Jim Schwab, senior research the Kyoto talks topped the list of stories covers Latin America, questioned whether associate at the American Planning selected by 20 SEJ members responding there was much interest among US media Association in Chicago tossed humor into to an informal survey conducted before beyond the prominent political meetings the discussion on the most under-reported year’s end on the listserv. Subscribers on the world stage. “The question of envi- story. “The discovery of the continued were asked the following questions: (1) ronmental conservation and sustainable existence of Neanderthals,” Jim offered, What in your view was the most important development in the developing world “who made so little impact on their envi- environmental story of 1997, (2) the most seems to be off the map for most ronment we didn’t know they were still under-reported story of the year, (3) the reporters,” he contended. around,” (referring to John Darnton’s worst-reported, and (4) what will be the The role of the Clinton administration best-seller, Neanderthal). top three stories of 1998? in affecting “endangered species protec- Debbie Schwartz, another Chicagoan, While ranking the top three stories, tion covenants” such as the Convention on covering education at Pioneer Press, several respondents also felt those same International Trade in Endangered Species unintentionally fooled everyone. She stories were among the “worst-reported” and the International Whaling Convention claimed that the (non-existent) Hazardous of the year. concerned Merritt Clifton, editor of Waste Disposal Act of 1997, permitting “I am convinced that climate change Animal People. Merritt thought that if the disposal of radioactive trash, was the most is an exceedingly important issue,” 11-year-old international moratorium on under-reported story. Michael Gerrard, observed Canadian member Colin Issacs, whaling were to collapse, it might make editor of Environmental Law in New York, but he lamented that “the quality of the one of the top stories of 1998. Alternative caught her faulty information. More coverage was abominable—the reporters transportation, superfund, Glen Canyon accurately, Debbie pointed to the brown- who covered Kyoto for CBC and for the Dam, flooding, endocrine disrupters, fields issue: “redeveloping the urban core major Canadian dailies had no idea what NAFTA, land use, sustainability, erosion makes more sense; destroying natural they were talking about.” of environmental protection legislation, habitat doesn’t.” Member Christine Cordner, associate and electric utility deregulation were also Will Nixon created his own category. editor for Electric Power Alert in DC, felt gauged as worst or under-reported stories. “My favorite environmental story of the that the (Kyoto) treaty will have an impact Global climate change and related year,” wrote Will, “took place down the on the cost of electricity. “As the talks issues are forecast as perhaps the most road from me in the Catskills where a progressed,” she stated, “the underlying important stories for 1998. Other issues mama bear and her three cubs were found issue hit at the home of most environmen- which may take prominence, according to in someone’s kitchen very early one tal debates: are environmental initiatives the survey, include natural disasters, food morning licking a bottle of champagne off based on public health or on economics?” safety, endangered species, air quality, the floor and enjoying a can of cake frost- Taking second place as most fre- drinking water, roads/sprawl/mass transit, ing. It made the front page of all the local quently cited story in 1997 was Indone- genetically-engineered crops, property papers. I should eat so well myself!” sian forest fires. Two people regarded the rights versus public land, superfund, fires as the worst-reported story and endocrine disrupters, green marketing, another as the most under-reported story. and the impact of environmental policy on Jim Quigley is SEJ programs manager Among the other issues which members regarded as important in 1997 were alter- Tyson honored by SEJ board native fuel vehicles, the Earth Summit, new EPA air quality regulations, the Honorary National Highway Traffic Safety Chesapeake pfisteria outbreak, the good membership was Administration. and bad of biotechnology, and degrada- conferred upon A proclamation acclaiming Tyson's tion of coral reefs. charter board service to SEJ, reflecting on his personali- The survey did not make clear the member and for- ty, and bestowing the honorary member- distinction between “the most under- mer SEJ presi- ship was also approved by the board. SEJ reported” and “the worst reported” stories dent Rae Tyson now counts four honorary memberships of the year. Offered SEJ board member by the SEJ board among its 1100 members. Besides Tyson JoAnn Valenti from BYU in Utah, “this at its meeting in they include former founding board mem- year I’ve decided anything is better than Washington, DC, ber Robert Engelman, now with January 10. Population Action International; SEJ nothing.” Chuck Quirmbach, reporter and Rae Tyson producer for Wisconsin Public Radio, Tyson was half- founder and former Scripps Howard editor nominated as his worst-reported story an way through his term as president in 1997 David Stolberg; and Bud Ward of the NBC-TV report “that implied congres- before relinquishing the office when he National Safety Council, who was instru- sional pork barreling to build things like left journalism to take a job with the mental in organizing SEJ.
6 Winter 1998 SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 SEJ News
small-group sessions with newsmakers attracted very low atten- Tucson... dance, the first time this has happened. Some newsmakers can- (from page 5) celed at the last minute. Perhaps they were in timeslots with too tours again, networking opportunites were great, but few meaty much competition, or they weren’t publicized well enough. sessions”; “Enjoyable, but... too many activities, conflicting tours Preparations are underway for the Eighth SEJ Annual and workshops”). Conference, scheduled for October 8-11, and hosted by the Especially popular sessions included the Network Lunch, as University of Tennessee in Chattanooga. After four years of basi- responses were18-0 that we do it every year. Stuart Udall’s pre- cally the same format, this year’s conference chair, Peter Dykstra sentation was lauded for its impressive display of satellite tech- of CNN, plans some innovative changes. The popular parts will nology and Udall was described by one respondent as “the Mick still be there (various tours and receptions, networking lunch, Jagger of aging enviros.” The Desert Museum visit received rave reviews, “good food, beautiful spot,” “Awesome in every way.” The one complaint: “Nice meal, but too hot to tour or do much else.” Members also liked the Thursday tours (especially the Border Environment tour), the minitours (especially Garbology), the Biosphere 2 tour, and any opportunities to get outside the lec- ture room. The concurrent panels were well-received, and many noted the wide diversity of topics. High praise was directed to “Is Deregulation the Death of Nukes?,” “From Clearcut to Zero Cut: The Debate Over Logging on National Forests,” and “Whistleblowers on the Environment.” Members didn’t like the panel “Collaborations Between Environmental Scientists and Journalists: Protocols and Possibilities,” with five of seven respondents virtually attack- Amy Gahran, Adam Glenn, Jim Bruggers, and George ing it (“Not well-conceived—misunderstood nature of indepen- Homsy (left to right) relax at the Arizona Historical Society. dent journalism”). The SEJ membership meeting, as usual, was panned. variety of panels and formats, etc.), but things will be arranged (“Pathetic turnout, over-tired board,” and perhaps the best sum- somewhat differently—into concurrent “Theme” rooms and up “Dull, but necessary.”) “Newsmaker” rooms —and the opening plenary may get a new The daytime BYOS (bring your own speaker) salons were a look. Stay tuned. total bust . Members had asked for something like this several If you have suggestions for SEJ-Chattanooga or want to vol- times in the past, but perhaps because of inadequate promotion, unteer your services to moderate and/or organize sessions, please no one attended them. The NAFTA opening plenary received contact me ([email protected] or (509) 493-4428) or Peter mixed reviews with seven praising it, seven panning, and seven ([email protected] or (404) 827-3349) soon. giving mixed reviews. The big opening plenary format will prob- ably get revamped this year in the face of declining support. The ranching tour and panel, controversial because of com- SEJ’s national conference coordinator Jay Letto is a free- plaints about lack of balance, both received mixed reviews. The lance journalist in White Salmon, WA. To subscribe to the SEJournal, please complete this form and mail with your payment of $50 to: Society of Environmental Journalist Subscription Department, P.O. Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118
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SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Winter 1998 7 SEJ News Stingrays, snakes, and stolen cars More stories from the deep, dark wilderness, by SEJers. Be South Dakota, where we’d just spent the day touring the National careful out there, folks: Parks and seeing the displays of ‘Animals of the Black Hills ä Close encounter: It doesn’t get much deeper or darker National Forest’ showing bears, cougars, coyotes, etc. Up until than the Amazon basin. While researching The Burning Season, this point I had only camped in areas where the wildlife consisted his book on slain Amazon activist Chico Mendes, New York of deer and bunny rabbits, so I was extremely nervous as we set Times reporter Andrew Revkin took a motorized canoe five days up camp, certain that at any second a mountian lion would bound up Jurua River in the western corner of Brazil to seek isolated out of the darkness. rubber tappers. “My boyfriend tried to calm “It was dry season,” says Andy, “so we me down and assure me that there kept running aground on sand bars. With my was absolutely nothing to worry two partners—an Indian guide and my trans- Grin & Bare It about. He decided to show me by lator—I often hopped out to shove off. We shining his flashlight into the woods didn’t tend to keep our shoes on much, what with the heat and around the campground (where we were the only visitors). wet. “As his light circled the perimeter of the forest, all we could “Well, one afternoon I hopped out as usual, but this time the see quite literally were dozens of beady little eyes glowing back bottom suddenly slid out from under me like someone sharply at us, proving that we most definitely were not alone! It was not pulled a rug. It was a freshwater stingray, and I’d stepped direct- reassuring, but the night passed without incident.” ly onto its back. I fell flat on my butt in the river, but miraculous- “On our way to Jewel Cave, also in South Dakota, we ly avoided being stabbed by its spiny tail. passed a sign on the side of the road that said ‘Caution—Large “Good thing too. Afterward, a rubber tapper said, ‘You’re Wildlife in Road Next 5 Miles’. Hearty har har. We thought that very lucky. The pain is so bad that even a strong man cries for was pretty comical until we took the next corner and were face to his mother.’” face with a huge, furry buffalo just standing there, right in the ä Flawed critters: Too often we assume that wildlife has middle of the road, looking at us like he was supposed to be there its life down pat, and that animals are incapable of the miscalcu- and didn’t we pay attention to the sign?” lations that we call “being human.” In one stroll, Joan Farnam, ä Remember the Alamo: It doesn’t get any easier in the reporter for the Budgeteer News in Duluth, MN, saw two exam- urban jungles! From Thom Wilder, BNA reporter, came a frus- ples of something akin to animal embarrassment: trating tale of the wild life in Tucson. “I was hiking in the Ozarks in late fall. The leaves were all While attending the SEJ annual conference last fall Thom crunchy on the ground and the trees were bare. I hunkered down walked out to the parking lot of the Doubletree Hotel to get his silently to see what I could see when I heard this loud CRA-AA- Alamo rental car when he saw a car identical to his pulling out of CK. I turned my head towards the sound and saw a red-tailed the lot. In fact, it was his car, he discovered, when he arrived at hawk on its way to the ground. It had landed on a rotten limb on the vacuous space where it had been. a nearby tree which had given way under its weight. Dutifully he reported the theft to Alamo, then—insult added “It happened so quickly that the big raptor didn’t have time to injury—found they would not rent him another car. He was to fly away. It landed lightly, bounced once, shook itself and then not a good risk, they figured, since he had “lost” the first one. looked around furtively as if to say, ‘I hope nobody saw that!’ ä Walking on the wild side: While conference attendees “Same day, same woods. Hiking further I blithely stepped clustered on Saturday for various mini-tours, one group was seen over a log and as I did, glanced down and saw a rattlesnake. He gathering in the lobby, then heading en masse for the cafeteria, was just hanging out there, minding his own business. Because it then scuttling down the hall to another part of the lobby. Orna was chilly, he wasn’t exactly active, and I almost put my foot Izakson, a member of this nomadic troop, summed up the situa- right on him as I stepped over the log. tion. “Lemmings, lemmings, lemmings,” she was heard saying as “Neither he nor I realized what had almost happened for an they made their third pass down the hallway. instant. He lifted his head and we stared at each other in alarm. ä We’re talkin’ wild!: Speaking of conference, the most- Then we both went into a panic. discussed invitation had to be the one posted for a reception at “ ‘Oh my God, a snake!’ I yelled. the Marriott, and worded thusly: “Turner Broadcasting Systems “And I think he yelled, ‘Oh my God, a human!’ Climax Change Party.” Think it merits another Kyoto? “He whipped around to get back into his hole under the log, but was so panic-stricken that he forgot that his tail was still in there. He battled with it for a moment before he disappeared.” Anything funny ever happen to you on or off the green beat? ä Living cartoons In a cross-country trip from If it’s connected in some way to reporting on the environment, or Pennsylvania to Colorado, Karen Price and her boyfriend had even if it isn’t, e-mail your tale to Noel Grove at two experiences that one usually sees in cartoons. Her account: [email protected], or snail mail to same at Box 1016, “We stopped for the evening in the Black Hills Forest of Middleburg, VA 20118.
8 Winter 1998 SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 SEJ News
The following list represents new SEJ Florida-St Petersburg, Dept. of Mass ¥ Susan Marticek (Academic), Ocean members recorded from Sept. 4, 1997 Communication and Journalism, St County College, Bayville through Jan. 23, 1998. Memberships record- Petersburg NEW MEXICO ed after Jan. 23 will appear in SEJournal ¥ Andrew Conte (Active), Stuart News, ¥ Keith Easthouse (Active), The Santa Fe volume 8, Number 1. Port St. Lucie News, Port St Lucie New Mexican, Santa Fe ¥ Bill George, (Associate), Winter Park NEW YORK ALABAMA ¥ Norman Miller (Academic), Rolling ¥ Larry Crenshaw (Active), Birmingham ¥ Michael A. Rivlin (Active), New York College, Environmental Studies, Orlando ¥ Stevin M. Westcott (Active), WAMC, ARIZONA GEORGIA ¥ Patti Epler (Active), Phoenix New Northeast Public Radio, “The Environment ¥ Steven N. Koppes (Associate), Times, Phoenix Show,” Albany University of Georgia, Research Reporter ¥ Mari N. Jensen (Academic),University NEVADA Magazine, Athens of California internship, Tucson ¥ Shelly Segale (Active), KOLO-TV, HAWAII ¥ James W. Johnson (Academic), Univ. of News Department, Reno ¥ Priscilla Billig (Associate), University Arizona Journalism Dept, Tucson NORTH CAROLINA of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program, ¥ Michael Kiefer (Active), Phoenix New ¥ Sara J. McKinstry (Academic), Duke Makai, Honolulu Times, Phoenix University, Nicholas School of the ILLINOIS CALIFORNIA Environment, Durham ¥ Cathryn Hodson (Active), Cahners ¥ Janet Byron (Active), Berkeley OREGON ¥ Steve LaRue (Active), San Diego Publishing, Manufacturing Marketplace/ ¥ Hal Bernton (Active), Oregonian, Union-Tribune, San Diego Pollution Engineering, Des Plaines Portland ¥ Jane Braxton Little (Active), Greenville ¥ Ellen Morton (Associate), Food ¥ Gary Braasch (Active), Nehalem ¥ Julia B. Wright (Academic), San Jose Protection Report, Crystal Lake ¥ Marie Gravelle (Active), Statesman State University, Journalism Department INDIANA Journal, Salem ¥ Harold Henderson (Active), LaPorte ¥ Eric Paul Zamora (Active), Fresno PENNSYLVANIA KENTUCKY COLORADO ¥ Paul David Plevakas (Academic), ¥ Barry Tonning (Associate), CSG ¥ Peter Chilson (Active), High Country Community College of Philadelphia, Centers for Environment & Safety, Ecos News, Paonia Philadelphia Magazine, Lexington ¥ Kathleen E. Conway (Academic), Mesa RHODE ISLAND MARYLAND State College, Grand Junction ¥ Malia Schwartz (Associate), University ¥ Janet A. Brindle (Active), Carroll ¥ Ginny Figlar (Academic), University of of Rhode Island, Rhode Island Sea Grant County Times, Westminster Colorado at Boulder, School of Journalism College Program, Narragansett ¥ Michael K. Burns (Active), Baltimore ¥ Greg Hanscom (Active), High Country TEXAS Sun, Baltimore News, Paonia ¥ Elaine Robbins (Active), Austin MASSACHUSETTS ¥ Katy Human (Active), Boulder Daily ¥ Don Wall (Active), WFAA-TV, News ¥ Jill Delamater (Associate), The Nature Camera, Boulder Division, Arlington CONNECTICUT Conservancy, From the Field, Boston VERMONT ¥ Jill Hecht (Academic), Boston ¥ Marian Chertow (Academic), Yale ¥ John A. Dillon, Times Argus & Rutland University, School of Forestry & University, Science Journalism Program, (VT) Herald, Worcester Environmental Studies, New Haven Medford VIRGINIA ¥ Jane Coppock (Academic), Yale School ¥ Jonathan D. Lawson (Academic), ¥ Katherine J. Duffy (Active), National of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Harvard University, Center for the Study Journal, Inc., Greenwire, Alexandria New Haven of World Religions, Cambridge ¥ Jeff South (Academic), Virginia ¥ Christine Woodside (Active), The Day, ¥ Kimberly W. Moy (Active), The Patriot Commonwealth University, School of New London Ledger, Quincy Mass Communications, Richmond DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ¥ Joni Praded (Associate), MSPCA/ ¥ Seth Hamblin (Active), The Washington AHES, Animals Magazine, Boston WASHINGTON Post, Washington MICHIGAN ¥ David J. Fassler , Washington State ¥ Dennis Troute (Active), Image ¥ Mary J. Gawenda (Academic), University, Environmental Science and Television, Image TV/Environmental Michigan State University, Journalism, Communication-Journalism, Pullman Forum, Washington Ag. & Nat. Resources Communications ¥ Duff Wilson (Active), Seattle Times, ¥ Thomas D. Wilder (Active), Bureau of depts., East Lansing Seattle National Affairs, Inc., Health Care MONTANA Division, Washington ¥ Patricia Borneman (Academic), Carroll AUSTRALIA FLORIDA College, Helena ¥ Janice Withnall (Academic), University ¥ Katherine Bouma (Active), Orlando NEW JERSEY of Western Sydney Nepean, School of Sentinel, Orlando ¥ George Andreassi (Active), Queens Communications and Media, Kingswood ¥ James F. Carstens, University of South Times/Ledger, Creskill v
SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Winter 1998 9 “Year of the ocean” offers oceans of copy By KIERAN MULVANEY (IWCO), a blue-ribbon panel established report on a number of marine environment The eminent scientist and author by former Portuguese President Mario issues. Among those widely identified as Arthur C. Clarke once observed that it was Soares. The IWCO has been formed for being the most significant are: “inappropriate to call this planet Earth, the purpose of “calling attention to the ¥ Debris and chemical contamination, when clearly it is Ocean.” The ocean cov- role of the oceans in planetary survival; which can result in poisoning, suffocating ers approximately 140,000,000 square promoting sustainable uses of the oceans; or entanglement of marine life, and can miles, 71 percent of the planet’s surface; alerting world leaders and the public to cause or exacerbate chronic disease and the Pacific alone covers 25 percent more the threats facing the oceans; and propos- reproductive maladies and deformities; surface area than all the planet’s land ing a better framework for ocean manage- ¥ Destructive fisheries policies that can masses combined. ment.” Its final report—which will be pre- lead to the depletion of fish populations, And yet it is questionable whether the sented also to the UN General Assembly as well as adverse impacts on non-target ocean is on the radar screen of either pub- in November—is expected to make a species and marine habitats; lic or media to the extent of other environ- ¥ The discharge of nutrients, from human mental issues. Recent polls conducted for and agricultural sewage to emissions from SeaWeb, an ocean education project of Science automobiles and power plants, which can The Pew Charitable Trusts, have shown give rise to harmful algal blooms and lead that although many express concern for to oxygen depletion in bottom waters; the state of the oceans, most rate it as less Survey ¥ Coastal construction, urbanization and important than tropical deforestation or the damming of rivers, resulting in the toxic waste. As Drs. Charles Peterson and number of recommendations concerning loss or disturbance of coastal habitats, and Jane Lubchenco have noted, “the sea and international stewardship and manage- loss or reduction of wildlife populations; all it provides to help support human his- ment of the oceans. (Full disclosure: I ¥ Exotic species introduced into environ- tory has over the course of human history, have been hired to help turn the report into ments where they did not previously exist, quite frankly, been taken for granted.” material suitable for publishing in book displacing native species and affecting In a move intended in part to redress form, but am not involved in the substance local environments. this slight, the United Nations has of the report itself.) In addition, there is growing interest declared 1998 the International Year of Closer to home, the National Oceanic in the possible impacts on the ocean by the Ocean. The idea was developed by and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ozone depletion and global climate the International Oceanographic seems to be acting as the de facto coordi- change. All of the above can provide a Commission (IOC) of the United Nations nator and clearinghouse of information variety of stories. In the past couple Educational, Scientific and Cultural and activities governing the Year of the of months, for example, I have written Organization (UNESCO) in 1993, and Ocean in this country. At the center of its stories on the risk posed to albatross approved by the UN General Assembly in plans is a White House Summit on the populations as a result of incidental 1994. According to the IOC, one reason Oceans, tentatively penciled in for June or entanglement in longline fisheries; an for launching the Year of the Ocean “is July. NOAA has established a special Environmental Defense Fund report on that so far neither governments nor the website (www.yoto98.noaa.gov) as a the environmental impacts of aquaculture; public pay adequate attention to the need guide to some of the publicity, campaign a National Marine Fisheries Service to protect the marine environment and to and legislative activities that will be review that claimed nearly one-third ensure a healthy ocean.” developing over the course of the year. of US fish species are overfished; how For journalists, environmental organi- Aside from staged events, the Year of some depleted right whale populations zations, and government agencies, the the Ocean provides the perfect excuse to may be doomed because of inbreeding; Year of the Ocean should offer a great and how declines in seals and seabirds in many hooks on which to hang news New Zealand may be affecting coastal reports and in-depth analyses of ocean plant populations. issues. Perhaps the biggest such hook will Like the ocean itself, the possibilities be Expo 98, to be held in Lisbon, Portugal for coverage seem almost endless. from May 22 to September 30, and which has as its theme, “The Oceans, a Heritage for the Future.” The centerpiece of the Kieran Mulvaney, Washington, DC, Exposition will be the Oceans Pavilion, has been writing about ocean issues for including an oceanarium that will be the more than 10 years. He edits a monthly largest in Europe and the second-largest in newsletter, Ocean Update, which is pub- the world. lished by SeaWeb and is avail- The final weeks of the Expo will see able by mail or at
10 Winter 1998 SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 If you write it, they will read? Less is not more in reporting on the environment By BRIAN BISHOP too much to misunderstanding and tedi- failing to acknowledge any benefits of oil Most journalists are concerned with um, we are lead to believe. This idea mir- production. examining the relevance of their own rors the underlying message of Robert’s The shrinkage of consumer interest in prose, especially those who want to stay report on SEJ Tucson: that environmental the environmental/science beat and corre- employed. “Environmental” journalism, writing is too complex. sponding downsizing in associated col- whose incredible Baby Boom wax has To assess the accuracy of this con- umn inches was discussed in the context made its practitioners somewhat insular to tention, journalists must consult their of readings such as SEJournal’s the need for such introspection, may not audience. If the maturing of the Baby “Bridging the gap to science.” Students be confronting a Gen X wane of equal Boomers and their counterculture revolu- blamed constant doom and gloom; and proportion. Even as the genre codifies its tion spawned the environmental beat, the-green-who-cried-wolf reversals result- professional ascendancy, it faces the larg- one must look to Generation X to under- ing from failure to cover both sides of a er issue of whether the beat was pop-jour- stand its future. I have a window on story from the outset, i.e. Alar, salt, etc, nalism all along. today’s cutting edge through my wife’s for their own disillusionment with envi- This lunar cycle in environmental teaching of science in an alternative pri- ronmental writing. writing has certainly captured the attention vate high school. Had I attempted to write a script of the Society of Environmental designed to awaken environmental Journalists (SEJ), at least according to Viewpoints journalists to the shortfalls in their work, Paul Roberts special to MSNBC which I could not have done a better job. To titled coverage of SEJ’s annual conven- is a regular feature offering a judge from this sampling, this genera- tion: “Environment Vanishing From forum to those who deal with tion is not simply a bunch of youthful News.” I agree with the message he took environmental issues in the media. sycophants intoning green mantras to from the conference—“that Journalists Opposing viewpoints are welcome. save the rainforest, or the rest of the could tell the story better.” Yet, in the planet. They don’t want condescending self-criticism reportedly engendered there For a variety of reasons these adoles- and didactic messages from the media; in Tucson, I see not the salvation of cents have rejected or been rejected by the they want to know what is really happen- environmental writing, but its return traditional educational establishment. ing. There is a great deal of disagreement to mediocrity punctuated only with They epitomize the vanguard of today’s and intricacy involved in telling that tale; sensationalism. youth attitudes which take on the adult yet, to remain relevant, environmental Roberts finds “experts” warning writ- system regardless of the once “enlight- journalism must delve further into this ers that, “in bending over backwards to ened” status of its proprietors—who are, labyrinth, not retreat. tell an unbiased story, many journalists after all, graduates of the anti-war and Roberts concludes his byline from end up producing nothing more than a civil rights movements. Tucson on this note: “What are needed series of statements and rebuttals—a The milieu of the school is a stirring are stories that help readers link specific boring, tedious read.” Oddly, these reminder of our own youthful mantras of events to larger issues. Reporters could, experts were criticizing the very emer- “question authority.” Yet, my expecta- for example, use a story about severe gence of professionalism in their ranks. tions were to find amongst today’s rebels storms to talk about the theorized effects Journalism professor and conference far more consonance with the likes of of climate change...” panelist Karl Grossman chided his Kaczynski than with someone like myself Great, every time some rain and wind Tucson audience suggesting: “The fear whose ode to a 70’s upbringing is to blow through imply that it’s probably (of being labeled biased or liberal) has question the authority of environmental global warming with no foundation for reached such absurdity...that the SEJ wor- regulators. that claim whatsoever. Perhaps good for ried that having its newsletter on recycled My wife’s anecdotes from an elective readership, but lousy for journalism. paper would be advocacy!” this semester examining “Science in the Despite his own bias, I am quicker to It is not a giant step, but a natural News” thus surprised me; and suggest a echo Grossman’s methodology: “don’t progression, from Grossman’s belittling strikingly different mandate than that confuse advocacy with ‘deep journalism’ of SEJ’s recycling ruminations to the presented to journalists at their Tucson —stories that ask probing questions, chal- notion that one shouldn’t question confab. Readings from Greenpeace lenge fundamental assumptions.”. recycling, period. For journalists to Magazine excoriating oil companies for So, when Al Gore said on July 28th, research and explain the complex market drilling near wilderness in Alaska were “More than 2,600 scientists have signed a forces, life cycle analyses, and cost- criticized by the students for name calling letter about global climatic disruption,” benefit discussions underlying the debate (oil companies were referred to most did you ask who those scientists were which rages around recycling contributes charitably as gluttonous hyenas), and for (Continued on page 13)
SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Winter 1998 11 Trashed by the company doctor Author reveals the anatomy of an unfavorable book review BY SANDRA STEINGRABER, Ph.D. official at W.R. Grace & Company, a mitted a letter to the Journal, asking for In late November while traveling on a chemical manufacturer whose environ- two things: that it send out Living book tour I received a reluctant phone mental misbehavior is the subject of a Downstream for re-review and that it message from a friend in Boston. The best-selling book, A Civil Action, and a develop a policy that guarantees the New England Journal of Medicine had forthcoming Hollywood movie. impartiality of its reviewers. just given my book a “well, it’s a really I was stunned. W.R. Grace was cer- I also raised questions about the qual- bad” review. tainly known to me. Living Downstream ifications required of book reviewers. My Up to that point, Living Downstream: explores various lines of evidence linking own Medline search turned up only one an Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the cancer to environmental conta- research paper authored by Jerry H. Environment (reviewed in the Fall 1997 mination. The childhood Berke. It was published a decade ago. If issue of SEJournal) had gathered nothing cancer cluster in Woburn, indeed his position at Grace was unknown but praise, and it had just gone into a sec- Massachusetts—to which the to the Journal, then on what basis did the ond printing. Figuring there was nothing editor decide Berke was expert enough to Journalism Dictionary to do but recover quietly, I spent an after- Environmental review my book? noon on the porch of a Texas ranch house Directory Book Shelf Two days later, Toronto Star colum- wondering about the reviewer: Jerry H. actions of W.R. Grace have been accused nist Michele Landsberg, published the Berke, MD, MPH. He had signed the of contributing—was one of the case stud- results of her own investigation. Her inter- review (NEJM vol. 337, pp. 1562-63) ies in my book. view with Berke yielded a completely dif- with his home address: 49 Windsor Ave., By the time I returned to Boston on ferent story. Berke told Landsberg that the Acton, MA. I imagined a retired physician December 12, outrage over the review had Journal was well aware of his position or a practitioner in private practice. mushroomed. Paul Brodeur, former staff with Grace and corresponded with him at Two weeks later, I was lecturing at writer at the New Yorker, and public his Grace offices. He explicitly requested the University of Vermont Hospital when health researcher Bill Ravanesi authored that the Journal not reveal his connection I received another message. A couple of an essay criticizing the Journal for con- with Grace because, “this is my personal medical doctors, fond of Living flict of interest and for failure to disclose opinion and not the company’s.” Downstream and angered by Berke’s dis- the nature of Berke’s employment. Titled At this writing—two days before missive critique, had apparently done “Old Tricks,” the essay was posted on Christmas 1997—I have heard nothing more than ponder his identity: they con- electronic listservs. By the end of the first further from the New England Journal of ducted a computer search. This revealed day, Bill told me, he had over 200 e-mail Medicine, a periodical I had gone through that Jerry H. Berke was far from an unaf- responses. graduate school believing was the filiated physician. He was, in fact, a senior In the meantime, I phoned the Tiffany’s of medical science. Journal’s book review editor, Dr. Robert As an author and Ph.D. biologist, I Schwartz. In a phone conversation on am angry, disillusioned, and fearful that December 16, Schwartz told me the revelations about these kinds of conflicts review was the result of a terrible over- of interest will further alienate an already sight. “If I had any idea he (Berke) cynical, science-phobic, conspiracy-happy worked for Grace, I wouldn’t have sent public. I am more fearful, however, that him the book.” I pointed out that Jerry H. Berke had two years ago reviewed another NEJM Apologizes book for the Journal and had not con- cealed his employment at Grace. Schwartz According to a story released by replied he was now aware of this fact, but the Associated Press on December 28, that Berke had signed the conflict of inter- 1997, The New England Journal of est statement and “we trust people.” Medicine editor-in-chief Jerome P. Schwartz went on to explain that he Kassirer, offered an apology on publish- has a “master list” of people who have ing a book review “for not informing expressed interest in reviewing books in readers that the author is medical direc- certain fields and that Berke’s name was tor of W.R. Grace & Co.” on that list. He asked for a few days to The next issue of NEJM was complete his investigation. I called back expected to print an apology for fail- the following Friday and was told to give ing to abide by its own disclosure him still more time. At this point, I sub- guidelines. Sandra Steingraber
12 Winter 1998 SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Journalism Dictionary Environmental
Directory Book Shelf the actions of the Journal are symptoma- rebuild shattered dwellings and lives after Not an easy assignment, particularly tic of an insidious development: paid a devastating hurricane sweeps through since the scientists could review her work. industry officials appropriating the media the village. But Baskin manages it handily. She focus- and speaking for the medical research For his contributions, Cox is awarded es on the question of “functional biodiver- community. the chiefly title of the legendary Nafanua, sity”: rather than assessing biodiversity’s When science speaks, whose voice who in ancient times, says a local leader, value through the stuff it provides, “The are we hearing these days? “appeared out of the sea to fight our Work of Nature” evaluates how loss of battles and save the village from oppres- diversity affects the services we, and the sion.” Nafanua’s tale—from detailed rest of the world, need to survive: clean air Sandra Steingraber has a Ph.D. in descriptions of flying fox behavior to and water, for example. Since plants recy- biology from the University of Michigan. how Samoans try to adapt to the Western cle two-thirds of rainwater right back into Her other writings include Post- world while holding onto traditions and the atmosphere, changes in vegetation Diagnosis, a volume of poetry, and The the rain forests that inspired them—pro- profoundly affect water distribution, soil Spoils of Famine, a report on ecology and vide a persuasive argument for protecting quality, and salinization. human rights in Africa. forest in a corner of the world most of us But scientists are just starting to figure will never see. out how to identify the “keystone species” Becoming a legend —Laura Tangley that hold an ecosystem together, and quantify how much change a biome can Nafanua: Saving the handle before its productivity is radically Samoan Rain Forest An outdoor puzzle altered. (Consider the spectacular failure by Paul Alan Cox The Work of Nature: How the of Biosphere II as one small example of W.H. Freeman and Company, New York Diversity of Life Sustains Us how little we understand.) Publication date: December 1997 by Yvonne Baskin Although Baskin doesn’t always man- Price: $23.95 (cloth) Island Press, 1997, 288 pages, cloth, age to overcome the academic dryness of $25.00 For well over a decade, conservation- her source material, she has loaded the ists have warned politicians and the public Everybody thinks biodiversity is book with real-world examples that about the dangers of losing tropical rain a good idea, but everybody also has a brighten the narrative, and prompt some forests—and tried to convince them of the hard time explaining why, aside from cit- wishful thinking on dream reporting need for sweeping policy changes and ing a few rare species that have proven to assignments: Should South Africa invest substantial funding commitments to stem be the source of new medicines, or saying massive amounts of money in uprooting the loss. Missing from many of their argu- that, well, it’s the right thing to do. That’s Australian pines and other exotic invaders ments, however, have been compelling why the Scientific Committee on to protect the Cape Town watershed, and personal accounts. Ethnobotanist Paul Problems of the Environment, a non-gov- by extension the $19 million export Alan Cox’s fills that gap with Nafanua, a ernmental organization for scientists based market for protea flowers, a South African book that’s an engaging mixture of ecolo- in Paris, commissioned veteran native that looks like an artichoke gy, anthropology, sociology, and old-fash- science writer Yvonne Baskin to translate on steroids? It’s unexpected examples like ioned natural history. the results of their three-year technical these that make The Work of Nature Just after his mother’s death from review of the impacts of loss of diversity a pleasure. breast cancer, Cox took his family to a into layman’s terms. —Nancy Shute remote village in Samoa, where he planned to spend a year collecting plant samples and interviewing traditional heal- If you write..(from page 11) ers, hoping to find medicinal compounds and their qualifications to discourse on the I don’t envy reporters who must that could cure cancer or other deadly dis- complexities of climate? Out of attempt to understand these issues without eases. Working with the National Cancer 1660 identified, one is a climatologist taking sides. I enjoy the luxury of having Institute, he discovered a plant-derived and only 11percent have any expertise a chip on my shoulder the size of a two- drug, prostratin, that shows promise as a which informs the debate over climate by-four while environmental journalists, if treatment for AIDS. change. Amongst the remainder: mostly they deserve the title, need follow the bib- Cox’s book, however, is much more biologists joined by a plastic surgeon, lical teachings on carrying wood: “Why than an ethnobotanical yarn. Fearing that landscape architects, lawyers, a derma- beholdest thou the mote that is in thy his research might accelerate the decay of tologist, English and linguistics experts, brother’s eye, but considerest not the Samoan culture, he initially seeks to limit a hotel administrator, a gynecologist, soci- beam that is in thine own eye?” his own interaction with the culture. Yet ologists, and an expert in traditional it’s not long before Cox is deeply Chinese medicine. involved—launching an international Is this ‘deep journalism’ challenging Brian Bishop is the Director of Rhode campaign to save the rain forest from log- Gore’s fundamental assumption or ‘corpo- Island WISEUSE. In this volunteer capac- gers, leading an effort to get protection for rate apology’? It all depends which side ity he advocates for individual property a rare species of flying fox, and helping to you are on. rights.
SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Winter 1998 13 Changes should Organic Regs: germinate copy By SUZANNE SPENCER percent organic ingredients may be they drive out current organic farmers, or After nearly eight years of negotia- labeled “made with certain organic ingre- both? For many organic farmers, their tions with farmers, processors and con- dients,” while those produced with less growing practices are as much a statement sumer groups, the federal government has than 50 percent organic only need list for independence and local control as a proposed national organic standards. organic among the ingredients. livelihood. With the dawn of national The organic food industry has been The penalty for false labeling as standards, have organic farmers, in fact, growing by 20 percent per year, according organic or selling a product that violates become the establishment? to industry analysts. In 1996, sales of the Agriculture Department’s standards Organic farms, most of them small organic food topped $3.5 billion. would be a fine up to $10,000. and under 100 acres, comprise one of the For years, different states have The agriculture department has most profitable sectors in agriculture due defined the term “organic” differently. delayed a decision on whether or not to to the higher prices they can charge. But About half the states now regulate allow the use of biotechnology, irradia- according to the Washington Post, that organic food by 33 different private certi- tion for killing bacteria, and sewage could change because several large food fication agencies and 11 state agencies. sludge as fertilizer. processors—including major baby food Both produce buyers and customers trust companies—have been moving into the that when they buy organic foods, market. National standards will probably the farms they come from don’t use syn- ReporterÕs hasten the growth of larger processors. thetic chemicals. What will that do to wholesale prices for Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), intro- organic food, and how will smaller farm- duced legislation in 1990 that put Toolbox ers fare? in motion negotiations to create nation- Finally, follow the money in the gro- al standards to help prevent fraud in cery store as well. Organic produce gener- the industry. As with the introduction of any new ally costs twice the amount as non-organic With the advent of new National regulation, there will be winners and produce. Will the introduction of national Organic Standards, this system of trust losers in the organic farming and process- organic standards bring prices down? And and local rule making will largely disap- ing industries with the advent of new will they in fact help eliminate fraud in the pear. The National Organic Program, national standards. industry and build consumer trust? The announced in December by the U.S. Stories to watch out for are how your jury is out but still worth following. Department of Agriculture, would over- state has certified organic growers and see every aspect of the production and processors in the past and how flexible handling of produce, meat, and poultry these new standards will be to your local Suzanne Spencer is a reporter for that are marketed as organically grown growing conditions. Vermont Public Radio. or raised. Pay attention to see how the unre- The organic seal may be carried by solved issues of genetic engineering and raw products that are 100 percent organic sludge get resolved. Many farmers fear —grown or manufactured without the that the Organic Standards Board will Contacts: use of added hormones, pesticides, or water down often-strict state standards ¥ USDA, Damaris Kogut, (202) 720- synthetic fertilizers—and by processed banning all of those practices. Though 8998,
14 Winter 1998 SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Features We never promised you objectivity The Maine Times celebrates three decades of muckraking By JAN WHITT the Maine Times, Cole and Cox admit that Maine is a land of lighthouses, late- they had no idea whether or not the publi- afternoon fog, more than 5,000 lakes, and cation they began in Topsham, Maine, forts and covered bridges. It is a state would even survive its first year. In 1966, known for lobster pounds and fish hatch- the two had become editors of the Bath- eries, for maple sugar and island ferries. Brunswick Times-Record. Realizing that Like those in other states with a they wanted an alternative publication, not wealth of natural resources, Maine resi- just a state newspaper, they founded the dents struggle to balance their desire for Maine Times two years later. residential and commercial expansion “The first year we lost $120,000,” with their love of wilderness serenity. For Cox said. “In the second, $40,000; in the decades, they have been deciding between third, $10,000. We spent $170,000 before the rights of developers and the preserva- we broke even.” tion of open space. Cole attributes the newspaper’s finan- Through it all, an alternative weekly cial survival to Cox, who worked as pub- newspaper now based in Hallowell has lisher, coordinating finances, projections been an advocate for the land. The Maine and circulation, and writing for the arts Times today deals with what editor section. Cole was assignment editor and Maine Times editor Douglas Rooks Douglas Rooks calls environmentalism wrote editorials. “Then they wake up one morning and “broadly defined.” “Peter was a great publisher,” Cole the wind is blowing from the northwest “We ask questions such as, ‘How do said. “I can’t manage my checkbook, and it stinks,” Cole said. “The paint is we live? How do we develop the commu- much less a company. We hung on the turning black on their houses. They don’t nity? How do we provide public ser- edge of disaster.” want to play golf with handkerchiefs over vices?’” he said. “We don’t hate people Cox, on the other hand, claims their their faces.” and worship trees.” early success was the direct result of Cole argues that because of the desire When the first issue of the Maine Cole’s ability to spot and to develop a of the Republican legislators to protect Times appeared Oct.4, 1968, seasoned story. The founders of the Times protested their assets, consensus prevailed, and the newspaper editors told its idealistic co- the Vietnam War, supported back-to- citizens of Maine set about to preserve the founders that they would run out of stories nature movements, opposed pesticide, environment and control growth. The in two months. Editors John Cole and supported small farms, and wrote inves- Times played a role in their commitment. Peter Cox ignored their warnings, turning tigative articles on forests and the paper “In that way, the new Republicans the Times into an environmental voice that industry. saved us,” Cole said. “A real vacuum by the mid-1970s began to reverberate Cole left the Times in 1982, carving existed, and our timing was lucky. throughout the Northeast. It has found out a career as a writer, environmental Residents were hungering for a voice, for ample material in investigative stories on activist, and teacher. Cox left in 1986 and something to represent them.” migrant workers, mining, power genera- returned from 1992-93. Now they are Calling mainstream dailies “official tion, recycling, oil tankers and refineries, reunited in the pages of the paper. Cole Vatican papers,” Cole said that in 1968 fishing, pollution, hazardous materials, publishes in the weekly for the first time state newspapers were conservative, sup- alternative energy sources, and consumer in more than 15 years, while Cox contin- ported the paper industry, and published issues, to name a few. ues his biweekly column and is listed on primarily press agency reports about the During its early muckraking days, the the masthead as a contributing writer. statehouse. During the 1970s, he said, the Times was never anti-government; in fact, “The Maine Times has always been other newspapers had to speed up their the publication appealed not only to interested in the quality of life—visual coverage to beat the Times to a story and Democrats, environmentalists, and acade- beauty, health, diversity, job availability,” journalists stopped being overly con- micians—but also to a strong Republican Cox said. “It even fought crime.” cerned about writing without bias. state legislature determined to protect Cole agrees. “We said, ‘This isn’t objective jour- property values and the state economy. “We had good radar,” he said. “We nalism. We never promised you that,’” “Republicans moved to Maine and could always see the issues coming.” Cole said. “My standard, my philosophy, bought land at Falmouth and Cape of journalism was different: You can’t Elizabeth,” Cole said. “They wanted to separate the opinions of the writer from retire and live on the Maine coast where Jan Whitt is an assistant professor in the issues at hand. If we relay them clearly there was no urban unrest. For years, they the School of Journalism and Mass and we don’t lie, then we’re honest.” had been at their clubs or under hairdryers Communication at the University of On the eve of the 30th anniversary of talking about crime. Colorado in Boulder.
SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Winter 1998 15 Online store helps you and SEJ By RUSS CLEMINGS through the SEJ Online Store. In addition to the usual legal SEJ took a small step into the world of online commerce— protection against credit card fraud (which generally limits liabil- not to mention greater financial independence—in late ity to $50), card numbers used to order books through the SEJ November with the grand opening of its online store on the store are encrypted before they are sent over the Internet. Both Environmental Journalism Home Page at
promised positions we are known for, and Letters...(from page 3) has allowed us to maintain a reputation for truthfulness, no matter how popular or Alternative Journalism’s national media was delivered. Then came the PR effort by unpopular our message. conference. But the facts show that Anita IAJ touting Roddick’s appearance. —Deborah Rephan, Greenpeace USA Roddick, CEO of The Body Shop, had —Jon Entine agreed to speak several months prior to the nnn nnn IAJ’s request for sponsorship. —Gavin Grant, The Body Shop To the editor: Mr. Entine responds: In the cover story “Beware of ‘green’ ¥ Greenpeace activists campaigned to fire nnn firms,” which probes many companies’ University of Florida marine biologist Mr. Entine responds: claims of environmental correctness, author Richard Lambertson for “killing whales.” For the record, my wife is an executive Jon Entine states that “...some journalists Lambertson was conducting research on at Kinko’s. She has never had anything to cut slack for campaigning organizations whale tissues. do with Bath and Body Works in any way, like Greenpeace which sometimes cross ¥ In 1995, Greenpeace guerrillas occupied shape or form. She was an executive for well over the line of truth to make a case.” Shell’s Brent Spar oil platform as it was Cadbury, then Taco Bell when “Shattered This article does not focus on Greenpeace, being towed to its North Sea burial. It Image” appeared, and then moved to The or contain any further reference to us, nor rented satellite dishes to transmit pictures Weather Channel. My only contact with does Mr. Entine bother to provide one sin- of its protest and ballyhoo tests which pur- Bath and Body Works has been with its gle example of Greenpeace crossing “over portedly indicated dangerous levels of lawyers, while criticizing its products in the line of truth.” toxic oil. Its supporters fire-bombed petrol Drug and Cosmetic Industry. For the record, Greenpeace is distin- stations. Greenpeace later said in an As for the “facts” about Roddick’s guished from many of the other businesses embarrassing public apology that it had appearance at the so-called alternative and organizations Mr. Entine criticizes in “mistakenly” exaggerated oil levels, and media-fest...On July 29, 1997, IAJ director that we do not solicit or accept any corpo- acknowledged that sinking Brent Spar Don Hazen sent me an e-mail that “we rate or government funding, nor does our would have created little environmental made some inquiries about sponsorships magazine, The Greenpeace Quarterly, damage. The New York Times and Wall and Body Shop was among those who accept any Street Journal questioned whether responded.” Body Shop then asked if advertising. Since our inception in 1971, Greenpeace massaged the story because of Roddick would be given a prominent spot this fundamental operating principle has a need for a high impact campaign to on a panel. After Hazen agreed, the money been essential for maintaining the uncom- revivify flagging donations.
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18 Winter 1998 SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Cover Story ers—not environment writers, but science (from page 1) writers—write for the professors and not Get it right... for the readers. Because they want to be We went deep, deep, deep into the I think that from an editor’s point of known by their news sources as someone rain forest. The Smithsonian runs a little view, the downside of decreased competi- who is goddamned brilliant. That will camp there. We talked to the worst people, tion is that it isn’t as important to you all improve their sources, but it won’t the governors of the provinces. They’re to get that goddamned thing in the news- improve people’s receptivity to their sci- just terrible and in the pockets of the pow- paper. It’s not as important to editors ence stories. ers that be. And also the agitators, the either, believe me. I find sometimes that Q: Do you worry at all about problems Indians, quite a few of them communists. you can tell someone a story here and with coverage being alarmist? It was a very marking trip to me. That was it will be in the paper in a couple of A: The trouble of that is that you make more than 20 years ago. days, three days, four days, five days. In genuine cause for concern dismissable by Trying to increase, or add a whole the days when The Star was a thriving exaggerating it. And the flip side of that is new discipline to the coverage of the and vibrant newspaper when I was first the automobile companies saying that they newspaper, it takes an awful lot more than a reporter here, there were four papers can’t possibly meet the standards that are a desire to do it. You’ve got to get slots, in town, and if you got beat there was set up and then they meet them so easily you’ve got to get money. You have to be a serious attitude discussion with the that it’s ridiculous. sure that you don’t shortchange something editors. One was scared for one’s pay- Q: There’s the problem that you have to else that you are already doing. check. That hasn’t happened around here sell your story to editors with some Q: Having gotten some religion on envi- for 15 years. drama, often with some negative element, ronment when down in Brazil, how did The thing that fascinates me about some critical element, in order to get them you bring that into the Post, introducing it your business now is the conflicting scien- to do the story. Any advice about how to as an area? tific claims. I was a Greek major and I sell a story without over-selling it? A: It was the beginning of an era of don’t know. Most of the scientific people A: I’ve watched it with fascination for so expansion at the Washington Post. We here have given up on me. They think I’m long. Some people are really good at it. were riding a crest, under a regime—the hopeless because I once said that I cannot (Bob) Woodward is unbelievable at it. Grahams—that believes in plowing back see why someone schpritzing (mimics The way he will slowly drop something profits into the product. spraying underarm deodorant) in the base- and let it roll across the table. . . and you Q: We’re all sort of concerned about the ment of a New York City apartment is say “WHAT??” And he’s gotcha. The general state of newspapers and shrinking going to damage the ozone layer. hook is set. resources. What trends do you see? SEJ: It doesn’t any more. I think that is really one of the first A: I see a wonderful trend for the best Q: How much can we, through SEJ out- lessons we learn, isn’t it, as we go into newspapers. There are fewer newspapers reach, work on editors who appear unre- this business, how to get an editor behind in the world. One of the reasons we got ceptive to stories that are environmental (Continued on next page) into this field was to shine the light in the or scientific or a mix of both, to get those dark corners and to make the world better. stories into print or on the air. On legendary ground And you don’t need X number of newspa- A: I imagine it will come down to individ- The setting for the interview with pers to do that, you need a strong bulb and ual newspapers, and you individuals Bradlee was the Post’s legendary fifth a lot of energy on the staff. So you can do working on editors. Not the top editor, but floor conference room, where many edi- it with television, you can do it with news- just one or two above you. There is noth- torial decisions concerning Watergate papers, you can do it with magazines, you ing intrinsically understandable about that coverage were made. On the wall can do it a hundred different ways. science story (referring to one in the Post) behind Bradlee hung a bronzed replica Q: Does the lack of competition in many and I said, hello, I don’t think I am going of the famous Post front page head- cities hurt newspapers? to read that story. I don’t get it, I won’t get lined “Nixon Resigns.” A: I think there’s actually more competi- it, and I feel embarrassed to admit it in Arrangements for the meeting were tion now than ever in my time. In this city front of Kathy Sawyer (the reporter), but made by SEJ board member and Post you’ve got CNN, the local news channel, it’s just tough. reporter Gary Lee, who also invited and network news that didn’t exist many Q: What advice do you have on improving Post managing editor Robert Kaiser years ago when there were so many news- stories? and environment reporter Joby Warrick papers. We are not competing with The A: I think it’s a real challenge. Why is sci- to attend. Star any more, or the Times Herald, or ence difficult? Economics is difficult too, Representing SEJ were officers The News. But we are still competing with so is murder, so is understanding people’s Kevin Carmody, Marla Cone, Mike Newsweek, Time, the New York Times, LA motives. Just because it’s mathematical Mansur, and Sara Thurin Rollin, board Times. We all get inordinate pleasure out and scientific doesn’t mean it’s basically members Adlai Amor, Russell of beating the New York Times. When the harder. However you teach explanatory, Clemings, Jim Detjen, Ann Goodman, history of the world is written, that isn’t expository writing, there must be some Gary Lee, Jacques Rivard, David all that goddamned important either, but way of saying this intelligently, consecu- Ropeik, and Angela Swafford, and SEJ it’s fun. tively. I have a feeling that science writ- executive director Beth Parke.
SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118Winter 1998 19 Cover Story Salvador? Q: Do you worry that the growth of Get it right...(from page 17) coverage of celebrities or entertainment our stories. And peel that several times. tographs? You talked about the pfiesteria figures is squeezing out more coverage, How do you take care of an assignment story which had pretty graphics of blobs or in-depth coverage of other subjects, from an editor that’s really a bullshit we could put in our papers, and snapshots like environment? Is there anything to assignment? You’ve got to feign enthusi- of dead fish. And you also talked about counter that? asm for it and move it over into an area global warming, which we don’t have any A: The truth has this wonderful way of where it is interesting. And that’s sales- pictures of. We have some charts we can emerging. It really damn well does. That’s manship and you all know that that’s an use. I’m wondering if in selling environ- the way a democracy works. And just as important part of your job. It’s certainly mental stories if we wouldn’t be wise to you think that’s a really terribly important part of an editor’s job. In television I hook up with the picture makers. discovery of yours, if you go back and would think it would be almost harder. If A: I think you’ve got to be careful read Walter Lippman’s public philosophy you try and sell one of these stories and because those guys are really creative. written in 1910, this is one of his main there’s not a dead fish around, there’s not (Laughter) Look at those pictures of that theories. Just be patient. much action. red, changing red-shaped blob that is com- The celebrity things, they’ll play Q: Probably one of our biggest dilemmas ing across the Pacific to illustrate El Niño. themselves out. It’s an industry now. It’s in covering an environmental story is Much more interesting than just a story in the magazine industry, it’s in newspa- making it readable but not alarmist. about “El Niño’s coming.” You say, pers. Even the good newspapers have it. I A: But sometimes it is alarmist. “Holy God! What is that?” hope that papers like the Post have it cor- Sometimes it scares the shit nered, have it contained. out of you what you are writ- It’s a much bigger problem ing. You can say that pfieste- with television. I mean as ria is not really serious, but soon as the news is over, on the other hand a lot of look what follows the news. dead fish flapping around the Q: What do you mean, as river banks with really ugly soon as the news is over? looking sores and you don’t A: I taught an experimental know, the scientists don’t course at Georgetown know and they’re the ones in University this year in charge of talking about it. It “How to Read a really was an interesting Newspaper.” One of the example in this area when the people I got to help me was Governor of Maryland really Dick Wald who is a presi- took it very seriously. He dent or vice president of closed rivers and closed fish ABC News. And he came sales. And the Governor of down and guest-lectured on Virginia took it much less so. I think a It is my opinion that the greatest how to watch the television news. It was story about how differently they coped change in newspapers in the last 50 years fascinating. He told these kids, 18 seniors with it would be an interesting way to has been graphics. Read the New York at Georgetown, that there is a moment in handle that. Times for 1946, please don’t read the every news show when the news is over. You sense when you may be pushing Washington Post. You know, Roman type There is no more news coming. And, he the panic button a little hard. I always say, here, italic, Roman, italic. No pictures. says, with a little practice you can identify “If true.” Don’t you? I mean, who believes Maybe a one-column head shot. Now the it in a matter of seconds when it is. It’s the first explanation from the White graphics people have intervened wonder- when the graphics start going crazy. You House? When the reader is confronted fully to make newspapers much more wel- see a page float off a calendar and into the with the scary story, the reader doesn’t come, much more easy to read. wind, or you see some inversion, the type know the reputation of that scientist, that Q: Does it make it easier for an editor to starts flashing. He was so fascinating person. It’s up to you to describe that per- hear if we’re talking about pictures and about how this came to be. When televi- son’s reputation, to examine his motive not just words? sion news first stopped being just some- which you do just automatically. Why is A: Oh, I think so, because your first goal body reading. this person talking at this time, in this as an editor is to get a reader interested Q: Is there any one thing you can put your way? As you fill your paper or whatever and keep them interested, beyond the finger on that you think environmental with that information, people begin to jump, beyond the first two or three reporting needs for improvement, such as trust you. ‘graphs. In this culture now, what’s the better writing, more depth? Q: Do you see a role for a greater con- longest story on television? 150 words, a A: I think you will know, you will wrestle nection between a beat reporter and the minute and 15 seconds? You can’t go the “getting it, getting it simple, getting it people who provide us graphics or pho- back and say, was that Guatemala or El right,” tackling complicated scientific
20 Winter 1998 SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Cover Story issues so that Greek majors can under- A: I’d get a reporter like you and take him you believe the President of the United stand it. That’s what keeps you worrying aside and say “Who’s lying?” It’s not States when he says something? Do you about know-nothing editors and worrying always easy, you know, the truth is hard to believe a witness when he testifies? Those about scary scientists who know that they find. The truth emerges and it’s still are judgments that make you a good can have a television spot on nightly news emerging there. It seems to me that on that reporter, if you can live with it. if they say the scariest thing possible. story, you can prove eventually, maybe Q: I don’t understand why it’s so difficult Q: That sounds mostly like writing. not by deadline, that pfiesteria is caused to convince editors that people are inter- A: It’s understanding it first. You can be by chicken refuse, but I don’t know, you ested in this (environment) when all the the best writer in the world but if you just keep whacking away at it. And the public opinion polling shows how deeply don’t understand your subject you will be people who are against your doing that, people are concerned, they want to know in terrible trouble. who are impeding more about the environ- Q: How well do you think newspapers are you, are not dopes. ment. And I’m wonder- doing today in covering the environment? Look how tobacco Do you believe ing, as an organization, if A: I don’t know how to answer that marshalled their the President of the we should be gathering because I don’t read enough newspapers. forces! How they’re United States when that kind of data and tak- But I find on local levels, which I am par- still doing it! he says something? ing it to editors, to make ticularly interested in because I have this Q: Part of the prob- Do you believe a the case on that level, as place in southern Maryland, that they lem is that scientists opposed to story by story. don’t do very well at all. And they are cannot prove cause witness when he A: Well, you’re out- spoon-fed from the person involved. and effect definitively, testifies? Those are gunned by the people Q: If you were running that newspaper, and editors seem to judgments that make who are on the other side how would you instruct your reporters on want cause and effect. you a good reporter, and are going to pay Wall covering environment? A: They always if you can live with it. Street lawyers. Look at A: I would keep the goddamned business hedge, but, you get to Harry MacPherson, one influences out. That’s the first thing. The a point when you can of the most brilliant advertisers and chamber of commerce get the president of one of these tobacco lawyers and people in Washington under types. They keep things out of papers and companies to say, look, cough, cough, I’m the Johnson Administration. Now the lead very much influence coverage. Down going to die tomorrow and I’ve changed attorney for the tobacco companies. You where I am now is a developer I know my mind! And they know that. can’t beat city hall on that thing. The peo- who’s got 250 acres on the road that goes Q: More often than not we’re stuck with ple who are really interested aren’t orga- right by the air base. And he’s decided the climate change story, or pfiesteria nized. Getting organized is a step against that he’s going to try and build a shopping story, or environmental policy story that the trend. But the people whose livelihood mall, office buildings, 400 condos, all that doesn’t have the resolution that other sto- is threatened by environmentalists, the stuff. It’s wall to wall traffic now, before ries have that editors long for. chicken farmers in Maryland who think he does it. And it’s fascinating to watch A: How many times did you think that the they got screwed when the (anti) tobacco whether they can beat him or not, and how scientists would support your position, people made them stop growing tobacco they cover it. that you have said “these guys are the and now they’re growing chickens and First of all they never mention the good guys, and those guys are not.” How they’re going to put them out of that busi- name of the person who’s behind it. They many times have they exaggerated, how ness. I don’t think you can correct that. always say “First Colony.” That means all many times have they been wrong? You In the last analysis, it’s the people who you’ve got to do is pick a good name and know, some of these guys will admit that run your organizations. Have you got their you are home free. They had a former they’ve taken fliers, they say “the over- interest? If you don’t, you’re in trouble. county commissioner testify for this thing, whelming, the most evidence is”. It’s very Send them down to Brazil and they’ll get but failed to remind the readers that (A) hard to know what is truth. That’s why interested in it. And I’ll tell you, Tom this guy had gone to jail two or three years that majoring in Greek was very useful. Lovejoy will take them down. He must be ago and (B) he had gotten an interest-free You’ve got to come to grips with that. Do interested in you guys. v loan of $300,000 from the developer! So that kind of good reporting that we’re used to in the good papers doesn’t happen Grazing..(from page 1) there. And that’s probably more important Of all the issues that are uniquely tle country. But it’s unfortunate when you than the environmental coverage. Western, none is more highly charged consider that livestock grazing is regard- Q: Getting back for a minute to the ques- than the question of ranching on the pub- ed by many ecologists as having more tion of conflicting scientific analysis in a lic lands. Unfortunately, it’s a story that impact on the West than any other single story. Pfiesteria, for example. One group falls beneath the radar of most of the activity, including logging, mining, or of scientists says its from water pollution national press. Perhaps that’s best, since real estate development. Cattle grazing from the farms, another group of scientists it’s difficult to get beyond the Marlboro- stretches over more than half the Western comes in and says it isn’t. What would an man myth unless you’ve done time in cat- landscape, 69 percent of the country’s editor like you do with that story?
SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118Winter 1998 21 Cover Story 191 million acres of national forests and ranch I’d be rationalizing, too. But range from the attraction of cowboy 90 percent of the land administered by the because I didn’t grow up on a ranch I have clothes and rural culture to the desire to U.S. Bureau of Land Management. the benefit of objectivity. My attack on prevent marching subdivisions. This latter Grazing is often allowed in national parks ranching is not personal. I just feel it’s the group includes High Country News pub- and in officially designated wilderness. right thing to do. I don’t believe in subsi- lisher Ed Marston, a fan of the consensus It’s like a religion, one that you can’t get dized industries. I’ve seen approach to conflict resolution, who wrote away from if you live here. the destruction with my own eyes. The that “only people who live on the land can The controversy over grazing in the government is paying someone to destroy save it.” It also includes The Nature West is embedded in the particularity of the land. That’s got to be stopped.” Conservancy, which buys grazing leases landscape. West of the 100th and grazes cattle itself, although meridian is the basin and range partly in response to the fact that where it rains less than 20 inches a it’s next to impossible to retire a year and the writer Wallace grazing lease on federal land. (This Stegner once noted, “unassisted is what Sonoron Institute economist agriculture is dubious or fool- Ray Rasker calls a “perverse incen- hardy.” That could explain why tive” to overgraze federal land; it’s virtually no agriculture, including extremely difficult and sometimes livestock grazing, is unassisted in impossible for a rancher to rest his the West. Although subsidies exist grazing allotment for more than a everywhere, they are indeed stag- couple of years without having to gering in this part of the country. relinquish it.) They have to be. Without them I like some ranchers too, but it’s Cattle on streams: romance or ruin? most of the rural resource extrac- important not to forget that some of tion activities in the West would be too The Big 10 conservation groups, such these folks are the rural equivalent of the marginal to sustain. as The Wilderness Society, the National railroad barons of the 1880s. Consider the Aridity also makes the Western land- Wildlife Federation, and the Natural words of eminent historian Donald scape fragile. There is increasing evidence Resources Defense Council, have taken up Worster of the University of Kansas: “The that the traditional ways for rural people the economics argument, pointing out that agriculturalists who constitute the private to make a living here are having cumula- ranchers pay $1.41 to graze a cow for a sector have become in recent times tive effects that are turning a near desert month, about a quarter of the private land too rich and well-organized, when com- into a real desert. price. Karl Hess, an ecologist and free pared with the archaic peasant class, to be It’s not a pretty sight and it can turn market proponent, estimates annual feder- cowed into submission by any state.” This conservatives into tree-huggers. Listen to al subsidies to ranchers at $400 is a rural aristocracy and, as my experi- this comment from Doug Haines, a million. The economic argument plays ence with the tall man in the cowboy hat Republican stockbroker who also happens well inside the Beltway, but there’s a shows, they don’t like being treated like to be a quail hunter and a member of the certain amount of disingenuousness in regular folks. Western Gamebird Association, which is it that isn’t lost on cattlemen. The real That doesn’t happen very often, or aggressively trying to remove cattle from motivation for reforming federal grazing they might get used to it. Federal subsidies Western public lands: “If I lived on a policy is the growing evidence that it insulate many ranchers from the economic is intrinsically harmful to the ecology of realities that most Americans live with on arid places. a daily basis and they’re not used to being The economic argument also leaves questioned about that. Environmentalists Contacts: out the mythology. On this issue, I don’t are disgusted with reporters who come out ¥ Joy Belsky, PhD. range scientist, think you can do that, because the cowboy West and become “rancher groupies.” (503) 228-9720 is a mythic figure to so many people, You’ve got to grapple with the myth, not ¥ David Brown, Arizona State including reporters. Why does a guy who merely repeat it. Inject the facts, and come University, (602) 973-0591 chases big dumb animals in a pickup truck out the other side. That doesn’t mean ¥ George Wuerthner,cattle v. subdivi- deserve more respect than a schoolteacher ignoring what ranchers are calling “cus- sions, compare grazing in different or a carpenter? Or a biologist who knows tom and culture” — just placing it in con- parts of West, (406) 222-1655 land science? Maybe these questions don’t text. And that takes time and research. ¥ Karl Hess, economics of ranching, matter when you consider that, as former Ranching is so deeply embedded in (303) 492-2328 Arizona Game and Fish biologist David the social structure of the intermountain ¥ Andy Kerr, consultant, former exec. Brown says, ranchers tell better stories West that I didn’t even write about it until dir. Oregon Natural Resources than environmentalists. I had lived in Arizona for several years. I Council, political strategy, (541) 432- Because the cowboy myth dies harder tackled it only after driving on dirt roads 0909 than a bad guy in a Sam Peckinpah movie, from Caborca, Sonora, to Three Points, ¥ Bob Ohmart, Center for Environmen- people you would expect to be against Arizona, country that had been ranched tal Studies, Arizona State University ranching often embrace it, for reasons that since Father Eusebio Kino introduced (riparian areas), (602) 965-4632
22 Winter 1998 SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Cover Story cattle and Christianity to the region in Unlike native wildlife, cattle gravitate them more and more, as the grazing issue the 1600s. to rivers and decimate the vegetation, heats up. (See “contacts,” page 22) There seemed to be something eternal transforming grasslands to scrublands and Ranchers do tell good stories. Society in the Mexican ranches I passed on my replacing indigenous species like prong- may decide to subsidize them to keep way to Baboquivori Peak. It was spring horn antelope with mule deer. The most these stories around, even if it means and the brittlebush was explosively yel- common word Western environmentalists fewer tanagers and willows and trout. low; you could hear people singing in the use to describe rangelands is “nuked.” The Or economics may decide the cowboy’s small, whitewashed missions. federal government is more restrained, time is over. That’s the romance. But others also reporting that two-thirds of rangelands are Let’s help society make an informed see romance in a desert with running in “less than good” condition and more decision with good reporting. It’s time to rivers lined by willows and sedges, where than half of streams and riparian areas are do justice to the landscape that is the real you can startle dense flocks of scarlet tan- overgrazed and degraded. Not very source of the Western myth when we tell agers and cedar waxwings. At Cienaga romantic. our own stories. Creek outside Tucson, which was fenced Of course, you don’t know this if you off to cattle a decade ago, you see a fly in from Atlanta or Pittsburgh or New remarkable contrast to the wide, dusty York, walk along a fenceline and see Susan Zakin is the author of Coyotes streambeds bereft of vegetation that are mountains and blue sky. And it’s tough to and Town Dogs: Earth First! and the norm on much of the range, including get good science on this issue. Many the Environmental Movement, (Pen- the ranch where Tucson conference atten- “range scientists” are paid directly or indi- guin 1994) and writes a column on dees were wowed by great vistas and an rectly by the cattle industry. There are a environmental politics for Sports Afield old cottonwood last October. few exceptions and you’ll be hearing from magazine.
meant Greenwire featured breaking news Kyoto..(from page 1) that the morning newspapers and CNN did not have. minute walk across a covered footbridge ing every major and minor development. Despite the similarities to an from the main conference building. The official proceedings were tele- American political convention, Kyoto was I had brought all the equipment need- vised on closed-circuit monitors. With the very different in other respects. Most ed to become a one-man publishing opera- exception of Gore’s speech, when the pre- political conventions are highly scripted tion in Kyoto, but there was no need for it. vailing dull roar faded to rapt silence, for a public audience, with the outcome Japan being the land of advanced electron- most people tuned out the speeches and known in advance. By contrast, in Kyoto ics, the conference facility was equipped scurried about pursuing their own agen- the negotiations were touch-and-go almost with perhaps 100 PCs, all of which had das. For the environmental reporter, decid- to the last minute. The issues dividing high-speed Internet access and a package ing where to begin each day was like try- nations seemed completely intractable at of basic software. The Japanese-English ing to choose from among all of those fine the outset, and even at 3:30 a.m. on the computer keyboards took some getting panel discussions offered simultaneously final day of the conference—which had used to, but after the first day, I left my at the SEJ annual conferences. On my been extended for an extra 24 hours to laptop at the hotel and used the confer- busiest day, I arrived at 8:30 a.m. and wrap up the deal—it seemed the compro- ence’s facilities to file my stories and print attended seven press briefings before fil- mise might collapse under the weight of promotional copies of Greenwire. (For ing my story at 9 p.m. and heading for an eleventh-hour objections. those who used laptops, almost all of the inexpensive udon noodle shop. There were no celebrations; one could pay phones had computer ports and direc- I soon discovered there was an advan- practically smell the rhetorical poison in tions in English on how to use them.) tage to Greenwire in the 14-hour time dif- the air, especially in the first few rest- Most of the reporters in Kyoto were ference between Kyoto and Washington. less days, when the hall seemed to offer not environmental specialists. Many were Because most morning papers are put to nothing but Cassandras of varying stripes general assignment correspondents based bed late the previous evening, reporters in and government officials strenuously in Tokyo, Hong Kong or Bangkok, and a Kyoto had to file stories by, say, 11 A.M. denying their bosses would ever budge sizable throng came and went with Vice on Wednesday, in time for the home from fixed positions. President Gore. But a few SEJers were in office to get it at 9 P.M. Tuesday evening Even after the final, 48-hour sight, including myself, Alex Barnum of and include it in Wednesday morning’s marathon negotiating session produced a the San Francisco Chronicle, Cheryl East Coast papers. But because deal, there was relatively little applause in Hogue of BNA, and Randy Loftis of the Greenwire’s first copy deadline is at 8 the hall: Many participants had already Dallas Morning News. If an award existed a.m., and its delivery time is 10:30 A.M., I left the site to get some sleep or to return for best coverage of the Kyoto event in the could arrive at the conference after a home. In one of those ironic vignettes that English language, it should probably go to leisurely breakfast, run my hurdles all one sees in these situations, two the Tokyo-based Japan Times, which gave afternoon and then file my story right after Americans with very different opinions on the story front-page play and at least a full- the U.S. government briefing concluded the issue were seen snoring on adjacent page interior spread on most days, cover- at 7:30 p.m. On three occasions, this (Continued on next page)
SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118Winter 1998 23 Cover story sofas in the hall that last morning: Nevertheless, the pact was a landmark tion and—most important for domestic Greenpeace climate change campaign statement by the leading nations of the US politics and long-term emisisons director Kalee Kreider and White House world that they are willing to sacrifice trends—binding emissions limits for Climate Change Task Force chair Dirk some small degree of economic and developing nations. Forrister. political sovereignty in the name of Thousands of policy debates, con- Was the final result a “meaningful” cooperative, precautionary action to pro- flicts and collaborations lie ahead, pre- accord? Time will tell. But the substance tect our shared atmosphere. Real progress senting just as many opportunities for of the deal was this: 38 industrial nations will still occur in tiny steps, but global cli- enterprising reporters and the people who agreed to restrain or reduce their emis- mate change will become the context in would spin them. sions of six greenhouse gases by a collec- which most energy, transportation and tive 5.2 percent beginning in the next development issues are discussed. decade and continuing beyond that. Much And because change will occur so Dale Curtis is publisher of Greenwire of the peripheral activity of the conference slowly, it will provide years of work for and Daily Energy Briefing. consisted of discussions about how those environmental journalists, policy wonks For more information on the Kyoto goals might be realized, but there are few and politicians. The Kyoto pact left a list Protocol, visit www.cop3.org, a website actual policy measures being seriously of topics that must still be addressed maintained by the secretariat to the UN considered anywhere that would actually in future talks, including emissions trad- Framework Convention on Climate achieve them. ing, equitable baselines, forest conserva- Change. Calendar
MARCH civil.utah.edu/~hayes/conference.htm 1-5. WM '98 (a conference on radioactive waste manage- 23-25. Riparian Management in Forests of the ment issues). Tucson. Contact: Carol Worth, Ph: (703) 742- Continental Eastern United States (sponsored by the 0017, E-mail: [email protected], or WM Symposia Inc., USDA Forest Service). Columbus. Contact: Nancy Walters, 245 S. Plumer, Ste. 19, Tucson, AZ 85719. Ph: (520) 624- US Forest Service, N. Central Forest Experiment Station, 8573; Fax: (520) 792-3993. WEB: http://www.wmsym.org 1992 Folwell Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108. Fax: (612) 649-5256; 1-5. Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting (with sessions E-mail: nwalters/[email protected]; WEB: http://www. on topics ranging from endocrine disruptors and respirato- ncfes.umn.edu/riparian/ ry effects of inhaled particulates, to impacts of breathing 29-Apr. 1. North American Conference on Pesticide Spray wood smoke or autoimmune disease triggered by chemical Drift Management (with sessions on the social, legal and exposures). Seattle. Contact: Deborah Hyman, SOT, 1767 environmental repercussions of pesticides landing in non- Business Center Dr., Ste. 302, Reston, VA 20190-5332. Ph: targeted areas—such as school yards or organic farms). (703) 438-3115; Fax: (703) 438-3113; E-mail: sothq@toxicolo- Portland, ME. Contact: Paul Gregory, Maine Board of gy.org; WEB: http://www.toxicology.org Pesticides Control, 28 State House Station, August, ME 11. Peer Review of National Toxicology Program Electric 04333-0028. Ph: (207) 287-2731; Fax: (207) 287-7548; E-mail: and Magnetic Field (EMF) Studies (focusing on studies on [email protected]; WEB: www.state.me.us/agricul- cancer studies in animals exposed to 50- and 60-hertz ture/pesticides/ fields). Research Triangle Park, N.C. Contact: Larry G. Hart, PO Box 12233, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709. Ph: APRIL (919) 541-3971; Fax: (919) 541-0295; E-mail: [email protected] 5-7. Air Pollution: Science and Regulation (with sessions on such topics as particulates, health effects of emerging 16-19. International Zebra Mussel and Aquatic Nuisance fuels, and epidemiological studies of gaseous pollutants Species Conference (sponsored by the California Sea and health). Boston. Contact: Gail Allosso, Health Effects Grant College System, it features sessions that go beyond Institute, 955 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139. the bivalve problem, to ruffes, mitten crabs, and the Ph: (617) 876-6700; Fax: (617) 876-6709; E-mail: Eurasian watermilfoil). Sacramento. Contact: Elizabeth [email protected] Muckle-Jeffs, 567 Roy Street, Pembroke, ON K8A 6R6, Canada. Ph: (800) 868-8776; E-mail: [email protected]; 6-9. Clinical and In Vivo Research Studies on Health WEB: http://www.zebraconf.org Effects of Electromagnetic Fields (sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, it will 22-26. Wetlands Engineering & River Restoration feature data on research from exposures at frequencies Conference (sponsored by the American Society of Civil associated with electric power). Phoenix. Contact: EMF Engineers). Denver. Contact: Don Hayes, Civil and RAPID Program, LCBRA, NIEHS, NIH, PO Box 12233 MD Environmental Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake EC-16, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709. Ph: (919) 541- City, UT 84112. Ph: (801) 581-7110; Fax: (801) 585-5477; E- 7534; Fax: (919) 541-0144. mail: [email protected]; WEB: http://www.
24 Winter 1998 SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Calendar 14-18. Air and Waste Management Association's Annual SELECT INTERNATIONAL MEETINGS Meeting (with more than 180 sessions on environmental research). San Diego. Contact: Kevin Wander, A&WMA, 1 March 3-7. Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology Gateway Center, 3rd Fl., Pittsburgh, PA 15222. Ph: (412) and Conservation (with sessions on such topics as interac- 232-3444; Fax: (412) 232-3450; E-mail: [email protected] tions between sea turtles and fishing fleets in Latin 20-23. Symposium on Environmental Toxicology and Risk America and advances in conservation programs). Assessment (with sessions on topics including biomarkers Mazatlan, Mexico. Contact: F. Alberto Abreu Grobois, BIT- of exposure to hormone mimicking pollutants, assessing MAR, Estacion Mazatlan, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y reproductive hazards and brain alterations from such pol- Limnologia-UNAM, A.P. 811, Mazatlan, Sinaloa 82000 lutants, monitoring PCBs in pine needles, and minimizing Mexico. Ph: ((52) 69-85-28-45/8; Fax: ((52) 69-82-61-33; E- impacts from seafood processing). Atlanta. Contact: Diane mail: [email protected] Henshel. Ph: (812) 855-4556. E-mail: [email protected] APPLICATION DEADLINES 20-24. Pacific Basin Conference on Hazardous Waste (sponsored by the East-West Center). Honolulu. Contact: March 1 for the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships Executive Secretary, PBCHWRM, c/o East-West center, at MIT. Open to English-speaking U.S. and Canadian print Program on Environment, 1777 East-West Rd., Honolulu, and broadcast journalists, including freelance writers, HI 96848. Ph: (808) 944-7224; Fax: (808) 944-7298; E-mail: applicants must have at least three years experience in [email protected]; web: http://envgov.ewc. communicating science or technological issues, such as hawaii.edu/pbc/call98 environmental research, to a broad audience. The $26,000 stipend covers an academic year of residence at MIT 23-24. Redefining the Crop Protection Industry (a confer- beginning Sept. 1. Contact: Knight Fellowships, MIT E32- ence on regulatory, policy, and technology issues, spon- 300, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. sored by the American Crop Protection Association). Ph: (617) 253-3442; Fax: (617) 258-8100; E-mail: ksjf- Arlington, VA. Contact: Chris Klose, ACPA, 1156 15th St., [email protected]; WEB: http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena/ NW, Washington DC 20005. Ph: (202) 872-3869; E-mail: org/k/ksjf/www/ how_to_apply.html. [email protected] March 1 for the Ted Scripps Fellowships in MAY Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado. 11-13. Characterizing the Effects of Endocrine Disruptors Applicants must be U.S. citizens with at least five years of on Human Health at Environmental Exposure Levels full time professional experience in print or broadcast jour- (with sessions on the toxicity of such compounds on the nalism—though not necessarily in covering the environ- brain, on development, on the immune system, and in can- ment. A $26,000 stipend will cover the fellows' 9-month cer causation). Raleigh, NC. Contact: Anna Lee Sabella, period of research and seminars in Boulder, beginning in National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Ph: August. Contact: Center for Environmental Journalism, (919) 541-4982. University of Colorado at Boulder, Campus Box 287, Boulder, CO 80309-0287. Ph: (303) 492-4114; WEB: 18-21. 1st International Conference on Remediation of http://campuspress.colorado.edu/cej.html. Chlorinated and Recalcitrant Compounds (sponsored by Battelle, with sessions on topics that include human health March 2 for a $1,000 Radio and Television News risk assessments). Monterey, Calif. Contact: The Directors Foundation Fellowship for a broadcast journal- Conference Group, 1989 W. Fifth Ave., Ste. 5, Columbus, ist covering science and environmental issues. Applicants OH 43212-1912. Ph: (800) 783-6338; Fax: (614) 488-5747; E- must have been covering the beat for 10 years or less. mail: [email protected] Winners need not take a sabbatical to qualify for the fel- lowship. Contact: Michelle Thibodeau, RTNDF, 1000 JUNE Connecticut Ave., NW, Ste. 615, Washington, DC 20036. Ph: (202) 467-5206; Fax: (202) 223-4007; E-mail: 3-6. Who Owns America: How Land and Natural [email protected]; WEB: http://www.rtndf.org. Resources are Owned and Controlled (sponsored by the Land Tenure Center at the University of Wisconsin- March 15 for the Marine Biological Laboratory Science Madison). Madison. Contact: Land Tenure Center, 1357 Writing Fellowships of up to eight weeks -- usually dur- University Ave., Rm 210, Madison, WI 53715. Ph: (608) ing the summer, and usually on Cape Cod. Applicants 262-3658; Fax: (608) 262-2141; E-mail: ltc- must have two years of full time professional experience in [email protected]. print or broadcast journalism, and preference will be given to journalists with staff positions, including those at the 14-18, Becoming a Complete Outdoor Writer. Redding, editorial or news director level. Contact: Pamela Clapp, CA. Contact Outdoor Writers Association of America, Inc. Science Writing Fellowships Program, 7 MBL St., Marine (OWAA) Headquarters, 2155 East College Ave., State Biological Laboratory, Woods, Hole, MA 02543-1015. Ph: College, PA 16801, Ph: (814) 234-1011; E-mail: (508) 289-7423; E-mail: [email protected]. v [email protected]
SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Winter 1998 25 Green Beat Correspondents micron.net, (509) 459-5431 (513) 221-0954 Contribute to Green Beat Illinois —Jonathon Ahl, WCBU 89.9, 1501 W. Oregon — Vacant The Green Beat is designed as an idea Bradley Avenue, Peoria, IL, 61625, exchange for environmental journalists and [email protected], (309) 677-2761 Pennsylvania — John Bartlett, Erie Daily educators. It relies on information submitted Times, 513 13th St., Franklin, PA 16323, by reporters about important issues, out- Iowa — Perry Beeman at the Des Moines (814) 437-6397 standing coverage, and developments in Register, P.O. Box 957, Des Moines, IA environmental education and the communi- 50304, [email protected], (515) 284- Puerto Rico/Caribbean Islands — Albi cations profession on a state-by-state basis. 8538 Ferre at El Nuevo Dia, Box 297, San Juan, To submit ideas for possible mention PR 00902, (809) 793-7070, ext. 2165 in The Green Beat, contact the SEJ corre- Kansas — Mike Mansur at the Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Ave., Kansas City, MO Rocky Mountain Region — Elizabeth spondent for the appropriate state(s) or, if Manning, High Country News, P.O. Box none are listed, contact the SEJ office.. 64108, [email protected], (816) 234- 4433 1274, Paonia, CO 81428, elimanning@earth- link.net, (303) 527-4898 Alabama — Vacant Kentucky — Andrew Melnykovych, Louisville Courier-Journal/Metro Desk, 525 Tennessee and Mississippi — Debbie Alaska — Vacant West Broadway, Louisville, KY 40201, amel Gilbert at The Memphis Flyer, 460 Ten- nessee St., Memphis, TN 38103, memfly- Arizona and New Mexico — Patti Epler, [email protected], (502) 582-4645 [email protected], (901) 521-9000 Phoenix New Times, PO Box 2510, Phoenix, Louisiana — Mike Dunne, Baton Rouge AZ 85254, [email protected], (602) Advocate, Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821- Texas and Oklahoma: 229-8451 0588, [email protected] (504) 383- North Texas and Oklahoma — Arkansas — Vacant 0301 Randy Loftis at The Dallas Morning News, California: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont — 508 Young St., Dallas, TX 75202, Robert Braile, Boston Globe correspondent, [email protected], (800) 431-0010 Northern California — Vacant P.O. Box 1907, Exeter, N.H., 03833, Central and West Texas — San Francisco Bay Area — Jane [email protected], 603) 772-6380 Robert Bryce, The Austin Chronicle, 3812 Kay at the San Francisco Examiner, Box Maryland and Delaware — Tim Wheeler, Brookview, Austin, TX 78722, rbryce@com- 7260, San Francisco, CA 94120, The Sun, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, MD puserve.com, (512) 454-5766 [email protected], (415) 777-8704 21278, [email protected], (301) 332-6564 East and Coastal Texas — Bill Southern California — Marni Michigan — Jeremy Pearce, Detroit News, Dawson, The Houston Chronicle, Box 4260, McEntee, Los Angeles Daily News, 20132 615 W. Lafeyette Boulevard, Detriot, MI Houston, TX 77210, bill.dawson@ Observation Drive, Topanga, CA 90290, 48226, (313) 223-4825 chron.com, (713) 220-7171 (805) 641-0542 Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota — Utah — Brent Israelsen, Salt Lake Tribune, Colorado — Todd Hartman, Colorado Tom Meersman at the Minneapolis Star 143 South Main, Salt Lake City, UT 84111, Springs Gazette, 30 S. Prospect St., Colorado Tribune, 425 Portland Avenue, Minneapolis, [email protected], (801) 237-2045 Springs, CO 80903, [email protected], MN 55488, [email protected], (719) 636-0285 (612) 673-4414 Wyoming — Vacant Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts Missouri — Bill Allen, St. Louis Post- Virginia and North Carolina — Vacant — Peter Lord, Providence Journal, 75 Dispatch, 900 N. Tucker Blvd., St. Louis, Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902, Washington State — Vacant MO 63101, [email protected], [email protected], (401) 277-8036 (314) 340-8127 West Virginia — Ken Ward,Charleston District of Columbia — Cheryl Hogue, Gazette, 1001 Virginia St. East, Charleston, Montana — Todd Wilkinson, P.O. Box 422, BNA, Daily Environment Report, 1231 25th WV 25301, [email protected], (304) Bozeman, MT 59771, [email protected], St., N.W., Room 361-S, Wash., DC 20037, 348-1702 (406) 587-4876 [email protected], (202) 452-4625, fax (202) Wisconsin — Chuck Quirmbach of 452-4150 Nebraska — Vacant Wisconsin Public Radio, 111 E. Kilbourn North Florida and South Georgia — New Jersey — Vacant Ave., #1060, Milwaukee, WI 53202, quirm- Deborah Hoag, 727 Egret Bluff Lane, [email protected], (414) 271-8686 or Jacksonville, FL 32211, [email protected], New York — Vacant (608) 263-7985 (904) 721-3497 Nevada — Mary Manning at the Las Canada — Doug Draper, The Standard,17 South Florida — Vacant Vegas Sun, 800 S. Valley View Blvd., Las Queen Street, St. Catherines, ON L2R 5G5, Vegas, NV 89107, (702) 259-4065 or Jon (905) 684-7251 x229 North Georgia — Vacant Christiansen of Great Basin News, 6185 SEJ needs Green Beat correspondents South Carolina — Vacant Franktown Road, Carson City, NV 89704 [email protected], (702) 882- Please note openings in several states. If Hawaii — Vacant 3990 interested, contact Kevin Carmody at (708) 633-5970 or Chris Rigel at rigel@voice Idaho — Rocky Barker of the Post- Ohio, Indiana — Charlie Prince at Ohio net.com, or (215) 836-9970. Positions are Register, 1020 11th St., Idaho Falls, ID, Environmental Reporter, 516 Ludlow Ave. open to SEJ members, though preference is 83404, (208) 529-8508, rbarker@ Cincinnati, OH 45220, [email protected], given to journalists or educators.
26 Winter 1998 SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 The Green Beat ARIZONA pesticides and even dogs. Call Paul ranchers and other coast dwellers argue Rogers, at (408) 920-5045. See National that the law protects agriculture, wildlife, ä Proposals to ease pressing envi- Science Foundation at http://www. views, water supplies, and open space ronmental woes and other concerns at the nsf.gov/od/opp/* from big development. Call Los Angeles Grand Canyon were explored in detail in Times, San Francisco Examiner, San Jose a four-part series in the Mesa Tribune. In ä Alternative energy, spurred by Mercury, San Francisco Chronicle and March, the National Park Service is 1970s foreign oil embargoes and a other state newspapers for advance and expected to choose a plan to help alleviate sweater-clad Jimmy Carter telling us to folo stories. problems caused by five million visitors a turn down our thermostats, faces an COLORADO year—ranging from overcrowding, poorly uncertain future in this new era of deregu- maintained trails to inadequate housing lation. Whether it survives in California ä for park employees. “Canyon In The Environmental Protection may end up depending solely on whether Agency has warned Colorado regulators Conflict,” published Nov. 16-19 by staff people are willing to pay something like writer Kirk Mitchell, examined competing that a law allowing companies to shield eight to 18 percent more than they will certain environmental violations from private development proposals, including pay for traditional but more polluting the much-publicized Canyon Forest public view conflicts with federal law. sources. Subsidies, economics, and new The so-called “immunity and privilege” Village being pushed by a consortium of technology are part of the story, which U.S., Italian, and Iranian businessmen. law gives companies immunities from ran on Jan. 2. Call Jim Bruggers, Contra fines and allows them to withhold infor- The series spent one day looking at possi- Costa Times, at (510) 943-8246. ble political links between the consor- mation about certain violations from the public if they voluntarily report environ- tium’s principals and government offi- ä This is where the rubber really cials, including park service higher-ups mental problems discovered during self- meets the road. Here on U.S. 101, five and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. audits of their operations. The law, ver- miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, Mitchell devoted one story to the sions of which exist in several other drivers zoom quietly from Sausalito to Havasupai Indians, who he calls the states, has the backing of Colorado’s Larkspur on six miles of asphalt pave- strongest opposition to the mega-develop- Department of Public Health and En- ment containing 90,000 chopped-up tires. ment. The tribe fears the project would vironment and many state legislators. It The Jan. 4 story describes the stretch as suck too much water out of the natural first came under fire from environmental- among hundreds of miles of highways in springs that both supply water and play an ists, who last year asked the EPA to take California paved in the past five years important role in the tribe’s spiritual over certain enforcement programs from with rubber from worn tires, part of a beliefs. The series wraps up with a com- the state if officials don’t dump the law. 1990s recycling project that offers the parison of Canyon Forest Village to For information, contact Todd Hartman first real hope of reclaiming used rubber Dollywood in Tennessee, which critics of the Colorado Springs Gazette, instead of burning or burying it. For infor- point to as an example of ill-planned [email protected] or (719) 636-0285 mation, contact Jane Kay, San Francisco development that has undermined the nat- Examiner, at (415) 777-8704. ural beauty of—and detracted visitors ä Colorado wildlife officials from—the Great Smoky Mountains by announced in January a plan to release ä High on bluffs overlooking the luring them into a theme park. Kirk 200 endangered lynx into the wilds of the Pacific Ocean on one of the last unspoiled Mitchell can be reached at (602) 898- Rocky Mountains beginning in the year stretches of California coast between 6542 at the Mesa Tribune. 2000. The lynx, a tuft-eared creature Carmel and Cambria, the Hearst Corp. resembling a bobcat, are plentiful in CALIFORNIA wants to build an 18-hole golf course, Canada and Alaska, but not in the lower four hotels, restaurants, and shops in the ä On Jan. 14, the San Jose Mercury 48 states. The last Colorado lynx was shadow of the fabled Hearst Castle. But spotted in 1973. The lynx became a high- News ran a story on the agreement known the California Coastal Commission, at a profile creature when the world-famous as the Environmental Protection Protocol hearing attended by 1,000 people Jan. 15 Vail ski area sought to add nearly 1,000 to the Antarctic Treaty. The entire conti- in San Luis Obispo, sent back the $100 acres to its terrain. Forest Service officials nent of Antarctica —from towering million resort for severe cuts. The Hearst granted Vail’s request last year, despite mountain ranges to seas teeming with Corp. owns 16 magazines, six radio sta- complaints from environmentalists that blue whales, emperor penguins and leop- tions, and 12 daily newspapers, including the expansion would threaten the elusive ard seals—will be set aside as a global the San Francisco Examiner, and is a lynx. If officials release the creatures, wilderness preserve under an international partner in cable networks ESPN and Arts they could be afforded endangered agreement that took effect in January. The & Entertainment. The corporation, whose species protection, a prospect that worries accord bans mining and oil drilling for a stock is held by a family trust, says it has timber and ski resort interests. Contact minimum of 50 years across the world’s a right to build on the 77,000-acre Hearst Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News, coldest and most pristine ecosystem. Ranch, founded in 1865 after the Gold (303) 892-5201. Unprecedented in its emphasis of conser- Rush by mining magnate George Hearst. vation over development, it also forbids a The resort won’t disturb the rustic charac- ILLINOIS wide range of wildlife threats including ter of the coast, representatives say. But ä Illinois Public Radio broke the
SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Winter 1998 27 The Green Beat story on changes in the State EPA “Clean rapidly, and an efficient dredger could burning demolition debris. Carmody also Break” program. It allows companies to help in many areas. For more informa- revealed on Jan. 7 that the Elwood come forward with violations without fac- tion, contact Elaine Hopkins at the Peoria Village Board, after promising residents ing fines or other penalties. Starting in Journal Star at [email protected] that the village would impose extra health 1998, businesses will no longer be or (309) 686-3114. and safety regulations, rushed to approve required to have a sponsoring community an annexation and zoning agreement that or environmental group to qualify for the ä Illinois Governor Jim Edgar would pay the tiny village $75 million but amnesty. So far, more than 600 violators signed legislation that strengthens rules blocks the village from imposing environ- of State Laws have come forward through on large livestock operations. The new mental rules any stricter than the mini- the program. The state EPA says the guidelines include annual inspections of mum state standards. In a long string of relaxed qualifications for the amnesty waste lagoons by the Illinois Department front page stories, Bob Okon of the program should increase the number of of Agriculture for units of more than Herald News has closely tracked the businesses that come into compliance 1,000 animals, seven-day notification to developer’s ever-changing plans. As of with EPA rules. Contact Sean Crawford, county boards of intent by developers to late December, the developer, Danny Illinois Public Radio at (217) 682-6058. construct or modify a lagoon, on-site Kohrdt of Maxwell, Calif., said he would written recommendations to facility man- no longer talk to reporters because their ä Two stories concerning the Illinois agers by the Department of Ag, slightly stories have fueled the controversy, River were profiled by the Peoria Journal larger setback requirements, and bans endangering his other industrial projects Star. The river is up for National Heritage new or expanded sites in 10-year flood at the 1,800-acre industrial park that a River Status by the federal government. plains. While environmentalists and local state development authority sold Kohrdt While environmentalists and most local activists agree the law is more strict than at a $4.2 million loss. For more informa- politicians want the designation and hope previous regulations, they say it does not tion, call Presecky at (815) 722-8355, it could lead to more funding for clean-up go nearly far enough to protect ground Carmody at (708) 633-5970 or Okon at of silt and waste, the Illinois Farm Bureau water, protect area residents in the case of (815) 729-6046. and several rural counties bordering the a lagoon leak, or address smell and KANSAS river are complaining that there will be airborne disease issues. Activists are restrictions on river traffic, making it dif- still pushing for County Boards to have ä A special commission appointed ficult for barge traffic to carry grain to zoning power to control over all large by Gov. Bill Graves has made a prelimi- market, and that it will encroach on pri- livestock operations. That proposal seems nary recommendation to weaken the vate property rights of farmers who are to have little support in the state legisla- state’s water quality standards. Last year, farming the land near the river. For infor- ture. The Illinois Pork Producers are call- agriculture and urban interests—faced mation, contact Elaine Hopkins, Peoria ing the newest rules signed by the with million of dollars to comply—joined Journal Star, at [email protected] Governor, “a good compromise”. The forces to lobby for less stringent stan- or phone (309) 686-3114. story was covered by numerous print and dards. Now, the commission has proposed broadcast sources. weakening the state’s ammonia, atrazine, ä Also on the river beat, the U.S. and chloride limits. It’s expected to issue Army Corps of Engineers is conducting a ä The Chicago Tribune’s Bob a final report this summer. For more feasibility study for a dredger that Peoria- Merrifield and Bill Presecky on Dec. 3 information, contact Jean Hays of the based Caterpillar Inc. is considering broke the news that a California develop- Wichita Eagle, (316) 268-6557 er planned a 100 million-ton landfill and developing. The dredger would cut the LOUISIANA cost of shallow water dredging in rivers quarry at the former Joliet Army and lakes by up to 80 percent. It also does Arsenal—immediately adjacent the new ä Environmental justice is at the not re-hydrate the silt or re-suspend any 19,500-acre Midewin National Tallgrass center of a debate that could have a major chemical pollutants in runoff water. Cat Prairie and the 985-acre Lincoln National impact on Louisiana’s industrial corridor. has put some research and development Veterans Cemetery. Veterans and envi- The battleground is a hearing on a request time into the project, but has not moved ronmental groups, and the two congress- by Shintech Inc. to build a $700 million past building a model. Cat is not talking men who engineered the arsenal’s conver- plastics plant in St. James Parish. The to reporters about the subject, but said in sion to various civilian uses, immediately state Department of Environmental statement that there are doubts about the cried foul. The Tribune duo, plus the Quality will listen to comments on profitability of such a super-efficient Chicago Daily Southtown and the Joliet whether allowing Shintech to build is just dredger. In comes the Army Corps of Herald News have followed up with or unjust to the tiny minority community Engineers who are leading the effort to numerous enterprise stories. The of Romeville and the larger St. James get public and private money to build a Southtown’s Kevin Carmody reported Parish population. A related article prototype of the dredger at an estimated Dec. 14 that a developer’s partner, the showed local opposition to building the cost of $1.5 million. Environmentalists Michigan-based Best Group Inc., which plant to be strong, although some, includ- and some local legislators say the prob- has an Army contract to demolish old ing the local branch of NAACP, were lem of erosion and siltation on bodies of buildings at the arsenal, was already vio- tossing out the welcome mat. Shintech’s water around the country is growing lating state air pollution laws by openly offer to provide $500,000 to assist in
28 Winter 1998 SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 The Green Beat training people to be qualified to work in wetlands—a ruling that affects the entire and recycle “gold from garbage,” the Dec. the Shintech plant or any other plant Midatlantic region and could have nation- 15 story reported. For more information, helped get local NAACP support. wide import. A three-judge panel of the contact Pearce at The Detroit News, (313) Opponents, however, say that the parish is Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals 223-4825. already home to eight petrochemical in Richmond, Va., overturned the 1996 plants and still has one of the highest conviction of a Washington-area develop- ä In a groundbreaking bid by local unemployment rates in the state. It also er for allegedly illegally bulldozing 70 officials in Michigan, a county has for the has the third highest level of toxic dis- acres of freshwater wetlands while build- first time demanded a complete list of air charges, opponents said. Local industries ing a planned community in southern emissions and water discharge permits already emit 22 million pounds of toxic Maryland. The panel ruled in December granted by state environmental officials. chemicals annually, according to reports that federal prosecutors had failed to Genesee County wants to compile its own made to the EPA and DEQ. The stories prove the criminal intent of the developer, pollution inventory and ultimately help ran January 24. Contact Mike Dunne, James Wilson and his company, Interstate explain higher incidences of certain ill- Baton Rouge Advocate, mdunne@the General Corp. But the panel, in a split nesses in the county. The Flint Journal’s advocate.com or (504) 383-0301. opinion, went on to declare federal Tammy Webber reported the Dec. 10 regulation of wetlands invalid unless story. Contact Webber at (810) 766-6237. MARYLAND they were directly linked to navigable ä Maryland’s governor has proposed waters. A significant portion of the fresh- ä In a four-part series that won an requiring all state farmers to limit their water wetlands—half or more in American Association for the use of animal manure and chemical Maryland—could be considered “isolat- Advancement of Science Journalism fertilizer to grow crops in an effort to ed” and therefore open to development Award, Bay City Times reporter Jenni avoid repeats of last summer’s fish kills under the ruling. Maryland protects Laidman detailed the impact of exotic and human health complaints in the wetlands under state law, so the federal species in the Great Lakes. Decades of Chesapeake Bay vicinity, which have ruling has little immediate impact in this human tinkering with stocking fish, envi- been linked to Pfiesteria piscicida or state. But it could open up development in ronmental accidents, and introduction of similar toxic microorganisms. Gov. Parris Virginia, West Virginia, and the the zebra mussel have created an unstable, N. Glendening introduced legislation in Carolinas, where Fourth Circuit rulings often chaotic ecosystem. The series ran January requiring all farmers to have apply, and where wetlands are protected from June 29 to July 2. For more informa- nutrient management plans by the year mainly by federal law and regulations. tion, contact Laidman at laidman@con- 2000 and to actually limit fertilizer or The court rejected a Justice Department centric.net or call her at The Bay City manure application by 2002, based on its request to re-argue the case, and no deci- Times, (517) 894-9637. nitrogen and phosphorus content. The sion has been made on whether to appeal bill follows the recommendations of a it to the Supreme Court. For information, ä With the keen and practical eyes blue-ribbon commission the governor call Tim Wheeler at The Baltimore Sun, of developers plotting a subdivision, bald appointed last summer after three (410) 332-6564. eagles are descending and building on Detroit’s suburban fringes. New eagle Maryland waterways were closed by fish MICHIGAN kills. The legislation is opposed by nesting sites are part of a surge in eagle farmers and by the state’s poultry indus- ä Record prices for maple trees have numbers in Michigan and across the try, which disputes the evidence that spurred logging in Michigan and are lur- nation. Scientists credit pollution controls manure runoff triggered last summer’s ing a deluge of timber buyers to the state. and rising public awareness for the outbreaks of Pfiesteria-like organisms in Demand for maples has led to clashes eagle’s rise from the federal Endangered the Eastern Shore rivers and creek. The between loggers and local landowners, Species List. For more information, con- governor also has proposed spending who claim there’s a growing black market tact Jeremy Pearce at The Detroit News, $41.3 million over the next three years to for stolen trees. The Traverse City (313) 223-4825. help farmers and feed companies comply Record-Eagle’s Diane Conners also MINNESOTA with the law, and to help scientists investigated misleading timber contracts research Pfiesteria, the single-celled in a Jan. 12 package of stories. Contact ä Environmentalists are trying to microorganism blamed for fish kills along Conners at (616) 933-1446. block the planned logging of 6,000 old the Atlantic coast. A team of Maryland red pines at a site called the Little Alfie doctors for the first time also linked ä Problems with potentially explo- timber tract in Superior National Forest in human health problems, such as memory sive methane emitted from most landfills northeastern Minnesota. Acting on a law- loss and confusion, to exposure to infest- may soon be solved by selling the gas. suit brought against the U.S. Forest ed waters. For more information, call Detroit News reporter Jeremy Pearce Service by the Minneapolis-based group Heather Dewar at (410) 332-6100. examined efforts by Michigan companies Earth Protector, a federal judge issued a to trap methane and use it to fuel plant temporary restraining order on Jan. 21 ä A federal appeals court has boilers and generators. New EPA rules set that put logging on hold. The order declared invalid federal regulations to take effect this year could force landfill remains in effect at least until the judge controlling development in “isolated” owners across the country to burn the gas decides whether to hold a trial.
SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Winter 1998 29 The Green Beat Meanwhile, members of Earth First! are the birds, but animal lovers worry that who addressed the International Joint winter camping at Little Alfie and have relaxing the rules could lead to wide- Commission in Niagra Falls. The Nov. 3 vowed to block the logging road leading spread massacres of fish-eating species. story in The Standard described the to the site, which is just outside the Bruce Reid reported this story in the effects of toxins like PCBs and dioxins Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. August 4th Clarion-Ledger. which include lower incidence of laughter The red pines are about 100 years old and and smiling in babies and a two-year lag 85 feet tall. Environmentalists say the MISSOURI in reading skills in eleven-year-olds. trees are becoming increasingly rare in the ä The Missouri River is the nation’s Contact Doug Draper at The Standard, Superior National Forest because the longest, if measured from its source at (905) 684-7251. Forest Service has targeted them for heavy Red Rock Lake in southeast Montana. But logging. Call Dean Rebuffoni, Minneapo- ä The Joint Commission conference for years it’s been the ugly sister to the lis Star Tribune, (612) 673-4432. Mississippi. Towns gamble along it, drink in Niagra Falls also brought differing from it, and dump their sewage in it. views of the Great Lakes cleanup to light: ä Growing concerns about the envi- Otherwise it’s mostly ignored. But an his- U.S. EPA regional director Jeanne Fox ronmental and economic effects of large toric battle over its wealth of water is pointed to the healthier state of the lakes, livestock operations, especially of those shaping as its species and its natural beau- while environmentalists held that the lakes raising hogs, have propelled the issue of ty struggles to survive. A three-part series remain in crisis. Their complaints includ- feedlots to the Minnesota Legislature. The by The Kansas City Star, “Big Muddy ed government downsizing of staff in the state is likely soon to authorize a $3 mil- Blues,” explored these issues and others. Ministry of Environment by an estimated lion Generic Environmental Impact Study For more information, contact Mike 30 percent and its stripping of environ- (GEIS) on the cumulative effect of large Mansur, [email protected] or (816) mental regulations and programs for mon- livestock operations. Some environmen- itoring pollution. The Nov. 3 article, 234-4433. talists, farmers, and county officials also which ran in The Standard, quoted direc- want the state to go a step further and to NEVADA tor of Environment Canada’s Ontario impose a moratorium on large feedlot region office John Mills as saying that “all expansions during the two-three year ä Four low-level radioactive waste this progress is not to deny that there are study, but that idea faces strong opposi- containers leaking liquid arrived at the continuing problems.” Phosphorus and tion from industry and from other farmers. Nevada Test Site and brought the wrath of algae are drastically reduced, as well as Contact: Tom Meersman, Minneapolis Nevada officials to bear on the U.S. concentrations of DDT, PCBs, and mer- Star Tribune, (612) 673-7388. Department of Energy. Seven trucks from cury in fish and other wildlife in the lakes. Fernald, Ohio and arriving in Nevada the But Great Lakes United, a citizens’ coali- MISSISSIPPI week of Dec. 15 were inspected. One alert tion of environmentalists from both sides ä In January, the EPA restricted use driver spotted up to two gallons of liquid of the border, pointed out that more than leaking from his truck parked in Kingman, of the herbicide Buctril, which farmers 100 kilograms of hazardous chemicals are AZ. The DOE stopped all shipments of had wanted to apply to a new, genetically being discharged to the lakes each year, low-level nuclear waste to the Nevada engineered variety of cotton. EPA said according to the groups executive director, Test Site from Fernald and Energy contamination of cottonseed (used in food Margaret Wooster. Contact Doug Draper, products) could pose a health risk to chil- Secretary Federico Pena promised a full- The Standard, (905) 684-7251. dren and others. The ruling was controver- scale investigation. Both the Las Vegas sial in Mississippi, where nearly a million SUN and the Las Vegas Review Journal ä Researchers have determined that acres are planted in cotton. Farmers were covered the stories. The SUN also covered most of the pollution in the Great Lakes is already upset because another new breed a technical transportation meeting where airborne, with Lake Superior getting prob- of genetically altered cotton, Monsanto’s State Sen. Jon Porter, (R-Boulder City) ably 90 percent of its pollution from the Roundup Ready, turned out to have called for a change in transportation routes air. Smog, reported a Nov. 21 story in The growth problems. Bruce Reid has written for the hundreds of shipments of radioac- Standard, is one of the culprits, along with a number of articles on this topic in tive waste traveling across Hoover Dam long-lasting pollutants such as DDT and Jackson’s Clarion-Ledger. He can be on a two-lane highway. Reporters were PCBs which blow north all the way to the reached at (601) 961-7063. Keith Rogers of the Review Journal, (702) Arctic. For details, contact Tom Spears of 383-0264 and Mary Manning of the Las The Standard ä The South’s thriving catfish-farm Vegas SUN, (702) 259-4065, e-mail: man- RHODE ISLAND industry has resulted in exploding popula- [email protected]. tions of fish-eating birds, especially dou- ONTARIO ä Scientific studies of the damages ble-crested cormorants, which consume as caused by the North Cape oil spill in much as $6 million worth of catfish a year ä Children of women who ate Lake southern Rhode Island two years ago con- in Mississippi (where about two-thirds of Ontario fish before delivery stand a clude that 12 million lobsters, 82 million all farm-raised catfish are produced). The chance of having lower IQs and other crabs, 679 million mussels, 81 million surf U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has pro- learning and behavioral problems later in clams, and between 2,842 and 5,559 shore posed allowing farmers to shoot more of life, according to scientist Theo Colborn birds were killed. The studies, reported in
30 Winter 1998 SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 The Green Beat the Providence Journal on Jan. 8, are Providence Journal, (401) 277-8036, or 28th Commercial Appeal, Tom Charlier being reviewed and the final natural [email protected]. wrote a comprehensive story on the sub- resource estimates are expected to be ject, beginning on the Sunday front page SOUTH DAKOTA altered somewhat. Then negotiations and jumping to a full page, with graphs, begin on how the owners of the North In 1942 the War Department seized photos, and sidebars. Charlier’s number is Cape barge should repair the damages 340,000 acres of Oglala Lakota land in (901) 529-2572. caused when their vessel ran aground in South Dakota and uprooted 125 families TAH January 1996. The spill occurred when in the biggest native American land-taking U Eklof Marine Inc. sent its tug and barge of this century. The land became the ä The politically embattled proposal out into a severe winter storm. The tug Badlands Bombing Range, and was used to store high-level nuclear waste in Utah caught fire and its crew abandoned ship. for two decades to test thousands of air-to- won some high-level endorsement in In a heroic effort, the Coast Guard helped air rockets, incendiary bombs, howitzer January. Five prominent U.S. scientists— two crewmen board the barge so they shells, artillery rounds, and other including three Nobel Prize winners—say could try to drop an anchor. But the weapons. Air Force demolition crews storing spent nuclear fuel on the Goshutes anchor windlass had been removed swept and cleared parts of the range in Indian Reservation 40 miles west of Salt for repairs and the anchor was lashed to 1963, 1964, and 1975, but some areas are Lake City poses few risks. The endorse- the barge’s deck. Both the tug and barge still littered with dangerous explosives. ment, however, has done little to quash were driven onto a Rhode Island beach. Tribal officials approached the Defense the state’s opposition. Utah Gov. Mike The barge spilled 828,000 gallons of Department in 1993, suggesting that if Leavitt has asked the Legislature for diesel fuel, the worst oil spill in state his- federal money was available, their mem- $603,000 to fight the proposal. Sources: tory. This is one of the first natural bers were in the best position to identify Danny Quintana, attorney for Goshutes, resource assessments of an oil spill being problems on the former range and clean (801) 363-7726; Connie Nakahara, State done under new guidelines set by the them up once and for all. Defense officials Office of High-level Nuclear Waste National Oceanic and Atmospheric agreed, and federal agencies so far have Storage Opposition. Administration (NOAA), so oil spill given the tribe about $2.5 million to train experts around the country are keeping a and employ a staff of 28. More clean-up ä The day after President Clinton close watch on the negotiations. In a his- money will be needed, but if the tribe and announced new measures to combat glob- toric criminal settlement, Ekloff and two the feds are successful in their efforts, the al warming, a legislative committee employees paid fines and penalties in pilot project could affect another 70 tribes advanced a resolution calling for Clinton early January after pleading guilty to struggling with the aftermath of Defense to ignore the international agreement criminal negligence. A federal judge Department land seizures. Contact: Bob signed in Kyoto, Japan. The resolution’s found them negligent for failing to sail von Sternberg, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, sponsor is Democratic state Sen. Mike with an anchor and adequate fire fighting (612) 673-4414. Dmitrich, who represents Utah’s coalbelt equipment, even though neither was TENNESSEE counties. With just 0.7 percent of the U.S. required by Coast Guard regulations. population, Utah accounts for 1.2 percent Another consequence of the spill became ä Nashville’s The Tennessean has of the nation’s CO2 emissions, mainly known Jan. 21 when the Providence done an extensive series of articles on East from large coal-fired power plants. Journal reported that the Coast Guard had Tennessee’s Oak Ridge nuclear complex, Dmitrich says the Kyoto agreement quietly promulgated new national safety penned by staff writers Anne Paine, Susan should not be honored unless developing regulations for the tug and barge industry. Thomas, and Laura Frank. Most of these nations agree to the same limits as devel- The new rules, prompted by the North stories have been collected into a 36-page oped nations. Contact Sen. Mike Cape spill and legislation sponsored by reprint, divided into two sections: “Toxic Dmitrich, (801) 538-1035; Jeff Burks, R.I. Sen. John Chafee, will cover thou- Burn,” about worried residents near a haz- Utah Office of Energy Resource Planning, sands of tugs and barges involved in ardous-waste incinerator, and “Toxic (801) 538-5412. coastal commerce. But few people in Burden,” about Oak Ridge’s history of Rhode Island, including Chafee’s staff, contamination and what’s being done to ä Envirocare of Utah, the largest pri- were aware the rules were up for public clean it up. Contact Anne Paine at vate radioactive waste landfill in the state, comment. Those who did know about [email protected] or (615) 259-8071. was fined $100,000 by the Utah Division them were incensed. U.S. Attorney of Radiation. The division found the com- Sheldon Whitehouse complained they ä Thanks to the Federal Express pany, in violation of its permit, was were so weak they would do nothing to Corp. headquarters, Memphis Internation- accepting waste that contained too much prevent another North Cape spill. They al Airport handles the most cargo volume of three radioactive isotopes used in the don’t even require anchors or fire suppres- of any airport in the world. But round-the- production of nuclear weapons. The action sion equipment on existing vessels. After clock takeoffs and landings at FedEx and follows a $197,000 fine levied to Chafee’s office complained, the Coast at Memphis’ Northwest Airlines hub have Envirocare by the state Division of Solid Guard reopened the public comment created a growing air-pollution problem, and Hazardous Waste for unrelated viola- process for an indefinite period. For more and unlike other industries, airport emis- tions. Envirocare’s founder, Khosrow information contact Peter B. Lord at the sions are unregulated. In the December Semnani, remains under investigation by
SEJournal, P.O.Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118 Winter 1998 31 The Green Beat the FBI for paying $600,000 to the former cials. The UMW and the largest industry penned a editorial, rare activity for that state director of radiation control. Contact negotiating group, the Bituminous Coal reporter. In the January 11 paper, Behm Charles Judd, Envirocare president, (801) Operators Association, also announced advocated “American Heritage River” 521-9619; Division of Radiation Control, they had reached early agreement on a status for the Milwaukee River. At least (801) 536-4250. new national coal contract to avoid a one Wisconsin environmentalist was sur- strike and focus efforts on fighting the prised Behm favored the Milwaukee over WEST VIRGINIA treaty. Some media coverage also several other state rivers that were nomi- ä The Huntington-Herald Dispatch, addressed the industry-union cooperation nated. A reader letter blasted the Clinton a Gannett newspaper focusing on public in fighting the new EPA particulate and administration’s Heritage River initiative. journalism civic involvement, sponsored a ozone standards, as well as the smog SIP Call Behm at (414) 224-2000. public forum in early December on envi- call. Call Ken Ward Jr. at The Charleston Gazette for more information at (304) ronmental concerns about mountaintop ä Thirty Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 348-1702. removal strip-mining. The controversy reporters and editors chose “Tumult in the over these large-scale coal mines contin- ä The state Division of Environmen- state’s energy system” as third place in a ues in the wake of a U.S. News and World list of Wisconsin’s top news stories for tal Protection got a lot of coverage when Report exposé on the environmental con- 1997. The energy issue trailed sequences of chopping off the tops of it helped local prosecutors win a convic- tion and jail time for a Kanawha County Wisconsin’s welfare experiment and mountains, digging out the coal under- Super Bowl hoopla. Contact Chuck neath, and filling in streams with the left- man who was caught collecting residents’ Quirmbach, (414) 271-8686. over earth. The magazine report, by garbage and dumping it illegally. Call Penny Loeb, is available on the internet at Ward for more. ä The January 15 edition of http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/coa lhigh.htm. For information on the Herald- ä December also saw the end of a Milwaukee’s Shepherd Express newspa- Dispatch forum, call the newspaper at nearly 10-year controversy over proposed per carried a front cover picture of a (304) 526-4000. construction of a $1 billion pulp and deformed frog. Inside, freelance writer paper mill along the Ohio River in Mason Brian Lavendel detailed Wisconsin and ä Newspapers and television in County, W.Va. Under pressure from envi- Minnesota investigations into odd-looking West Virginia focused coverage in the ronmental and labor groups, the develop- frogs that have been found in parts of last few months on a joint campaign by ers announced they had dropped the pro- the midwest and Canada. Lavendel wrote the United Mine Workers union and the ject. Call Ward (see phone number above). a similar piece in the Nov. 28 edition of Madison’s Isthmus weekly. Lavendel coal industry to oppose the global climate WISCONSIN treaty drafted in Kyoto, Japan. Union says the frog photo is an actual unre- leaders and coal executives drew a big ä Just as the SEJ listserv was debat- touched picture provided by the crowd at numerous press conferences, and ing whether environmental reporters Wisconsin Department of Natural newspapers published op-ed pieces under should be advocates, Milwaukee Journal Resources. Contact Lavendel at laven- joint bylines by union and company offi- Sentinel environment writer Don Behm [email protected] or (608) 249-3370.
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