"EPA’s enforcement of environmental laws was on the rise again this year, although not yet reaching the highs the agency attained in cracking down on polluters over the past decade."
With climate-related legal disputes playing out worldwide, we could see more environmental journalists facing subpoenas to access their newsgathering materials and reveal their sources. Case in point: the legal battle embroiling a news nonprofit over its coverage of pipeline protests. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press’ Chris Young looks at shield laws and resources to help deal with legal threats to your journalistic integrity.
"Abe Silverman’s Christmas Eve quickly went from low-key to frantic when Winter Storm Elliott brought a power grid emergency to "much of the Eastern seaboard."
"Chris Kelly writes a twice-weekly column for the Scranton Times-Tribune, his place of work for the past 27 years. For all but a few months of that tenure, his bosses have been the Lynett family, descendants of E.J. Lynett, a breaker boy in the coal mines of northeastern Pennsylvania who went on to buy the newspaper in 1895. Over four generations, the Lynetts reminded staffers and their community alike of their commitment to both local journalism and local ownership."
"Hundreds of thousands of neighborhoods in the United States are seeing population decline as a result of flooding, new research suggests. Those neighborhoods are often located in areas that are growing in population overall, including parts of Florida, Texas and the region around Washington, D.C."
"The Biden administration approved the smallest offshore oil program in U.S. history Friday, a move that’s already provoked both outrage from Republicans and disappointment from climate activists who had urged the president to take more dramatic action."
The connection between global warming and human health is worrying many public health experts, as some climate change-induced ecological shifts have worsened the potential spread of infectious diseases, including in North America. The latest TipSheet takes a closer look at a half-dozen climate-related diseases that environmental journalists might watch for local and regional stories. Plus, resources to report on the issue.
"It may seem counterintuitive to support the annual culling of trees, but environmentalists say Christmas tree farms have ecological benefits."
"New oil and natural gas leasing will be prohibited on state land surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park, an area sacred to Native Americans, for the next 20 years under an executive order by New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard."
"Scientists with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory were flying a plane equipped with a visible-infrared imaging spectrometer over an oil field in California’s San Joaquin Valley when they made a worrisome discovery. Images produced by the device revealed a large plume of methane lingering in the air."
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